Filed under: Apple Corporate, Enterprise, Switchers
Axel Springer AG moves to Mac
Axel Springer AG, Germany's largest newspaper publisher, is moving its entire organization -- 12,000 computers -- to the Mac platform. Axel Springer will become Apple's largest corporate customer in Europe, and second largest customer worldwide. (Google is number one.)
The article is only available in German so far.
Axel Springer owns Bild and Bild am Sonntag, tabloid-style dailies (not unlike The Sun in the UK or the New York Post in the U.S.) and several magazines sold under the Bild brand. The company currently uses large-scale publishing solutions from WoodWing Software and CCI, both of which support Mac clients.
In a video message to employees, CEO Matthias Döpfner cited ease-of-use, appearance, and total cost of ownership in the reason to switch. Employees can start buying and using Macs and iPhones this month, though the entire organization will be migrated over the course of a year or two five years. (Hey, I took French in high school.)
Thanks Alex, Rouven, and bimbum for the tip (and the help with the German)!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
pentumforever said 2:32PM on 7-04-2008
Yay, third time I got credited ;
Actually the migration will take 5 years, at least that's what tagesschau.de saysy. (http://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/apple6.html)
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dys said 2:42PM on 7-04-2008
Here's the complete translation:
Axel Springer Verlag plans to use Apple computers only throughout the company. It will use the entire hardware range, from Macbook (Pro), via Macbook Air, to iMac, all the way to MacPro. The company also plans to use the iPhone. Only the Mac servers are not mentioned in the announcement.
In a YouTube video to employees, Axel Springer chairman Mathias Döpfer gave the reasons for the switch as the traditional use of Mac computers for layout jobs, as well as their user friendliness: "Apple computers are easier to use than all others." As a third reason, he said that Apple makes "the best looking computers". Finally, Mr. Döpfer said that Apple computers are cheaper in purchase and maintenance than the old ones.
This means that Axel Springer Verlag will become Apple's largest corporate customer in Europe, and the second largest worldwide after Google, Mr. Döpfner said. The computers will run Mac OS X or Windows XP/Vista, according to individual needs. The switch will take place over the next five years. The company declined to comment about the number of computers or the cost involved in the operation.
The company, the publisher of German newspapers like Die Welt and Bild, employs 10,000 people and had a turnover of some 2.5 billion euro in 2007. Apart from Germany, the company is active in 32 countries, such as Poland, Hungary, Russia, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Spain and France.
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muzzyology said 4:34PM on 7-04-2008
If you like Fox, then Bild is right up your alley.
First class stuff...
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Dan Woods said 4:56PM on 7-04-2008
In Melbourne, Australia, the equivalent paper is The Herald-Sun.
It is known around here as the "Newspaper for the Illiterate".
I do notice that Using well designed systems when the predominant system is poorly designed promotes Critical Thinking. It opens an individual up the the fact that what every one else is doing may not be the best way to do it. The Fact that they're embracing both Mac OSX and Vista-based Macs will encourage homogeny.
Hopefully this will improve the quality of Journalism in Axel Springer AG.
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brooklyn said 9:30PM on 7-05-2008
Die Welt, also published by Axel Springer AG, is one of Germany's intellectual newspapers of record. It is center-right by European standards, which places it a bit left of center by current American standards. Springer is among the world's most respected academic and scientific publishers. The journalistic junk food supports the healthier fare. It's as if your supermarket celebrity gossip sheet funded medical journals on cancer research. Would that national embarrassments like Fox News could say the same.
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hamburg said 4:51AM on 7-07-2008
@brooklyn - the academic publisher Springer has nothing to do with the Axel Springer AG. Two different companies with no association whatsoever.
So your whole positive take on the junk supporting the healthier fare doesn't work out.
Plus: "Die Welt" can really not be called "center" or even "left of center", by any standard, in any country. You must be mixing it up with some other paper.
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kaspian said 7:11AM on 8-09-2008
@hamburg: I'd say Brooklyn is basically correct: "Die Welt" is on the right of the German political spectrum, which places it roughly in liberal Democratic territory -- the center left -- in the USA.
There is effectively no left wing in contemporary American politics, at least by European standards. We are fighting here to defend such "progressive" concepts as the legitimacy of science.