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So is Apple in the process of Sherlocking JAMF??
I was wondering the same thing. My guess is that Apple will provide the basic seamless experience and JAMF will be the full bells and whistles option that requires a PHD to configure and keep running.
 
Well this is a start. At the moment it looks like Configurator in the cloud with very little integration into the iCloud suite other than backups.

When Apple announced custom domains for iCloud I proposed that it was a less-powerful version of something that they were developing for businesses, so I suspect that is still to come.

I fully anticipate that, if adoption rates are high enough, Apple will continue to add services under this, or a similar, umbrella such as managed e-mail, Messages & FaceTime for Business, shared team and company repositories in iCloud and more. I suspect they wish to complete with Google Workspace and Office 365 especially where organisations client IT equipment exclusively comprises Apple equipment.
 
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I see a lot of people using iPhones for work related stuff. For example, taking pictures for quality control or inspection. It is good new iPhone Pro has great cameras. New iPhones have good low light ability but there are times when turning-on the flashlight during picture taking would be better.

Another issue for iPhones at work is identifying temporary contacts in iMessage. There needs to be a way to easily label a temporary contact in iMessage without adding them to Contacts. Currently it’s just the person’s phone number.
 
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It will be interesting to see how this will work for small businesses located in the European Union. EU law requires that data of businesses is stored on servers within the EU. Dropbox Business among others offers that.
 
From what I could gather this is mostly covering Prestage Enrollment from ADE and probably application deployment via VPP. There doesn't seem to be any integration with intune or Jamf*anything. I signed my small business up, but it seems they are being picky on who they sign up.
 
This has my attention for sure. We use JAMF though this would be interesting replacement..?
 
I wish them well, and I’m glad it’s kicking off as a beta. In my time with Apple (I was a creative from 2006-2016) their business offers were not very competitive and the numbers (outside of just sales) were poor.
 
I generally think Prosser is a total clown and completely lies about his “leaks", but his post is spot on: Apple’s software is getting comically low quality. I can’t believe their competitors aren’t attacking this vector: sure, fast chips, but totally unreliable software.

Windows has a really bad record, and can't laugh at anyone...
 
I generally think Prosser is a total clown and completely lies about his “leaks", but his post is spot on: Apple’s software is getting comically low quality. I can’t believe their competitors aren’t attacking this vector: sure, fast chips, but totally unreliable software.
Lol. Because Microsoft and Google have stellar client software? Microsoft routinely does stupid things with Windows patching and Google Chrome is still a massive resource hog after like a decade.
 
I run a studio and have to manually manage employee Macs since we can't hire dedicated IT staff, which gets tedious quickly. Though from the screenshots it doesn't seem to offer too much configurability and / or features. Still a better start than nothing.
 
I wonder if this means they will finally drop macOS Server which has been languishing on the App Store unloved for years.
 
As the person who manages our (not so) small business' IT needs, I'm liking what I'm seeing but it still falls short of the basics that a business needs. We currently use Google Workspace.

In addition to a company login with email (and aliases) for each team member, the most basic foundation is:

Google Meet
Google Chat
Google Drive
Google Docs
Google Sheets

Apple has all of these but not currently optimized for business.

FaceTime
iMessage
iCloud Drive
Pages
Numbers

Google Workspace logins to other apps and sites like Shopify are very convenient and keep our business safe because nobody needs passwords. Blocking their Google account instantly blocks their access to the company's apps and sites. Sign In With Apple has potential to do this but it's also not optimized for an organization.

As soon as Apple figures this out, I'll start moving our business away from Google. We already all use Apple devices and we're doubling down with MacBookPros on order.
 
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For our shop, I can't see the value in this. Maybe you need to be in a regular rhythm of buying apple products to benefit :p
 
I wonder if this means they will finally drop macOS Server which has been languishing on the App Store unloved for years.
This actually made me remember or even miss the Snow Leopard Server era. You could run your Open Directory and various other services on your own, with a base Mac mini, which pretty much just does the same thing here.
 
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For our shop, I can't see the value in this. Maybe you need to be in a regular rhythm of buying apple products to benefit :p
I think the headcount needs to be into dozens to begin seeing the benefits. Most shops on the creative side of business probably wouldn't approach that. Also the increasing trend of BYOD, it is not like I own or even want to have to change anything on a freelancer's machine.
 
Does this include Email service with business domains? And does it work with Windows PCs as well?
I don't think anyone has the answers to this yet, but here are my guesses:

Apple has always avoided providing cloud services for business. For example, iCloud Photo Stream (the precursor to iCloud Photos) had explicit limits set that clearly were meant to prevent professional users from adopting it. iCloud Photos is no different. Despite Apple's strong position in professional video and music production (Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro), I'm not aware of any corporate-style cloud service for that, either.

My feeling is that Apple just doesn't want to be subjected to the kind of features/capabilities demands the corporate world tends to place on such services. In my opinion, it's the root cause of Microsoft-style feature bloat - any corporate client of any size feels empowered to demand a new feature/capability. This goes against Apple's "we know best" culture. Corporate mail in particular (actually, the whole bundle of mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, file sharing, etc.) is particularly demanding.

Apple saw a real business opportunity in device management. Apple's control of desktop and mobile OSes and hardware gives them a unique advantage in that area - manage your entire enterprise from a single platform.

Corporate mail, however, belongs firmly to Microsoft Exchange. The chances of Apple wresting significant market share from Exchange are minimal - between delivering feature parity and some sort of attractive, distinctive difference... not easy. It would be Microsoft Office all over again - a huge entrenched user base with little motive to change.

And does the new service work with Windows PCs as well? I seriously doubt it ever would. Apple is far less interested in selling this service as it is in selling its hardware. It wants iPhone/iPad customers to convert their PCs to Macs, and Ease of Administration plus Lower Total Cost of Ownership have been Apple's corporate selling points for years. The pitch here will be, "Hey smaller businesses, if you go all-Apple look how much better things can be!"
 
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