Apple not interested in the enterprise

I don't have any trouble believing that life under the helm of Jobs is less than peachy. Jobs has gambled and won with the iPod. We forget the number of times Apple has lost at product development schemes that wound up being innovative and even prophetic. Jobs lives in his game face most likely. I'm not a fan of his stage presence, but I'm not the head of a multibillion dollar company. He can speak in absolutes as long as Apple is in the black. The fact that they are quickly becoming so appliance based is embarrassing.

Sun, Cisco ? Are these household names? Eh..no.
Jobs likes the spotlight, most likely.
You don't get celebs kissing your butt by having the most widely used raid array.

I can see a logic in why Apple want to be consumer-focussed. If they were enterprise focussed they'd never be able to innovate at the speed they are today. Windows is hampered by this very fact. Corporations are slowest to upgrade or adapt to newer technologies. By bieng consumer focussed Apple has an oportunity to stay ahead of the innovation curve.

Let me ask you this - Steve Jobs more or less right more often or less often than ___________?

First, people get all blinded by the overall size of the corporate market but it's EXACTLY and just as exciting as the market for WHITE CARGO VANS. Corporations buy a crapload of them - is there a business? Yes? Is it a good business? Not really.

Why? 95% of buyers buy based solely on two criterias - does it meet our minimal critera (2 doors up front, door on side and door in back, engine, 2 seats, auto trans - THAT'S IT!) Same with the way they buy PC's & servers.

Just because there's money in something doesn't mean you have to pursue that line. Do you root through garbage cans to find recycling? $10 dollars for every garabage full - money you're giving up?

Without going into a great explanation - corporate PC's are a LOSERS market. Out of 20 companies selling PC's - there are maybe a handful that are making money, what's the point of selling something to lose money? With servers, you have an even wider group of competition - plus, unlike selling to consumers where you launch a website or open your door, people will come to you - in the corporate market - YOU HAVE TO GO TO THEM. That's means STAFFING and SERVICING. Again to what means? To chase a market that means you lose a couple pennies on every sale? What's the point?

So, Apple has SMARTLY choosen the MOST PROFITABLE path. They make a "different" server that appeals to people who have special needs ... and who know what they are buying - for the other 95%, the corporate guy who signs off on the capital expenditure checks does not care it's louder than a jet or that it's hotter than a sauna requiring a massive utlity bill.

Different companies have different cultures and their successes derive from that ...

Of course, this is the exact opposite of Microsoft - they are set up & have a corporate culture of asking corporate buyers what they want and selling it to them but of course, that piling on of features does not work in the consumer market. Once the corporate buyers needs are miniamlly met, the rest is a checklist and MS is great at that - you want 300 spiral shapes for PP, you got it - never mind only a dead blind guy wwould want to use that ...

So,w hen MS comes to directly selling to consumes, they are clueless because we'll say things like we low fat food but when it's actually out in the market, we ignore it to buy oreos. Apple/Steve Jobs on the other hand pretty jknows what we really want and understand that most people don't really understand what they want until they see it (ask people 6 years if they wanted an ipod and most people would've answered, why?)

"That would explain why Apple's Mac OS X is behind Windows in terms of worldwide use"

think about it.. what do computers do in offices.. yawn.. MS Office.. Customer Relations Software... Email... Yawn...

Of course Apple isn't interested in this market.. they can't compete because they're closed architecture ... Businesses like to know that they can swap hardware vendors to get the best price.. If you like Apple, you have to realize that as a business, you have NO LEVERAGE against them ... (unless sb gets OS X running on Dells)

Apple's vertical integrated solution is perfect for the home where people are already used to vertical integration ... if you imagine a VCR's on screen interface and on board interface as "software" and "hardware".. think of Apple as a CE company and it starts to make sense..

having said that I saw an office FULL of iMacs today (university) and they sure look sexy. Even from the back.. :p

I work in a company that focus only on enterprise
markets. And I can tell you that sometimes I wish
we should diversify into the consumer space.
Selling into the enterprise incurs huge costs -
industry and technical expertise, pre-sales
and after-sales support, deep account coverage
etc etc.

And enterprises almost always ask you to customize
this and that product for them. They also expect
high-level execs (including the CEO) to meet them
or to speak at their events.

I believe Steve Jobs made a conscious and wise
decision not to focus too much resources and
money on this market. Unless you have a monopoly
technology such as MS or the size of IBM, it is
not a market that can be tackled easily. Hiring a
few more federal sales guys to knock doors on
the East Coast ain't going to make much of
a difference.

Apple has found a good niche in the consumer space.
It so happens that some of Apple's technologies and products can be used by the enterprises as well.
So having a few guys around to handle demands that
come in is a wise and prudent strategy, I think.

simply a disgruntled former Apple employee bash. How does explane the Enterprise divison at Apple?

Bla, bla bla!

That's an interesting comment since I've heard from three Apple Enterprise sales reps and their comments on the article can summed up in the chat I had with a long term Apple employee. His comment on the post was "It's balanced."

That's because he was there and knows what happened. I don't hate Steve Jobs, I just disagree with many of his policies especially the way he treats some employees and some enterprise customers who would really like to see Apple succeed so they have a viable choice.

Here's a link to the one letter I sent to Steve.

http://viewfromthemountain.typepad.com/applepeels/2005/07/my_one_letter_t.html

You might also want to check out this wall of awards that I won at Apple in the nearly twenty years that I was there.

http://www.coastal-mountain.com/AppleAwardsWall.htm

If you don't believe that Steve has told Enterprise reps that Apple is a consumer company, ask one of the reps. If he or she is honest they'll tell you that what I said is the truth.

Keep drinkin the Koolaid guys. It's so sad that Macusers these days can't handle the slightest bit of criticism against Steve Jobs. I read the guys blog and he has some valid points espicially in regards to resellers.

What a bitter looser. No balance no sense that he is considering both sides of an issue. Just that he hates Jobs.