I don't think you clearly read the original post you responded to. The poster said that he would love to work on a Mac at work. You said that he wouldn't, because you would have to work longer hours for less pay if you were a tech, and that the Management wouldn't know anything about technology. Personally, I fail to see any connection between the two things.
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Apple Targeting Small Business Customers at Retail Stores
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I don't think you clearly read the original post you responded to. The poster said that he would love to work on a Mac at work. You said that he wouldn't, because you would have to work longer hours for less pay if you were a tech, and that the Management wouldn't know anything about technology. Personally, I fail to see any connection between the two things.
This.
Don't take this as a critique of your post, since I have no idea if what you say is accurate enough, but I am well aware that Remote Desktop is only good up to a point. I would never claim to be able to solve problems that are presented at an Enterprise level. At the Small Business level (up to 100 or so employees even), however, Apple Remote Desktop will meet the needs of a system administrator for the purposes mentioned.
jW
Small Business???
(I realize you are talking small business, and this doesn't necessarily apply)
I have two cats and most of the time they are friends but sometimes they get into a big fight over some minor issue.
For this reason I think Apple has a long way to go to get into the small business market.
(I realize you are talking small business, and this doesn't necessarily apply)
I have two cats and most of the time they are friends but sometimes they get into a big fight over some minor issue.
For this reason I think Apple has a long way to go to get into the small business market.
I have done both and neither is harder or easier but they are very, very different.
Way way way back.....
I used to use IBM's OS/2. Since I was a client of IBM, I got invited to take periodic technology surveys. I must have totally skewed their results though.
Their category for "small business" was something like 500 systems or less, and revenues under $$million. I was a single seat photographer, barely making ends meet. But I dutifully filled in the surveys, and I got some swag occasionally.
This thread reminded me about IBM's idea of a "small" business. I think it would be helpful if someone actually looked up Apple's idea of a small business. I kinda doubt they are talking about 6700 seats.
I used to use IBM's OS/2. Since I was a client of IBM, I got invited to take periodic technology surveys. I must have totally skewed their results though.
Their category for "small business" was something like 500 systems or less, and revenues under $$million. I was a single seat photographer, barely making ends meet. But I dutifully filled in the surveys, and I got some swag occasionally.
This thread reminded me about IBM's idea of a "small" business. I think it would be helpful if someone actually looked up Apple's idea of a small business. I kinda doubt they are talking about 6700 seats.
Just what I need. Another "expert" telling me I am stupid. Well, I know that I don't know everything. But global derogatory comments don't add much to to the discussion.
How about explaining why that is "Mickey Mouse"? Why is File Vault improper?
BTW, DropBox is fantastic and it is encrypted. I put folders on my clients desktops and we share confidential documents without the fear of having emails intercepted. It is not perfect (if someone deletes a file from their folder, it disappears from mine), but the alternatives are worse because they are so cumbersome to use.
Well for my small business it's all about cost and compatibility, neither of which Apple does very well. They are getting better at compatibility but not even close on cost. For a true small businesses HP or Dell will do just fine for average workstations and are cheaper, including software. Also for me until the big two actually get serious about porting their CADD software to Mac its an easy decision to make.
I have no clue what Apple envisions as "small business." They probably mean they want Macs in the local office for your optometrist, dentist, etc. It's an untapped market for them - the font desk "receptionist" market.
Apart from that, Apple has a high end workstation with good horsepower (but not good graphics) that starts at $3299 and a "powerful" iMac with midrange desktop performance for between $2000 and $2200 before tax.
I think that's a hard thing to sell to any creative business without deep pockets.
I've always argued that most companies buy based on price, as do most consumers. Apple is an exception, and not the bulk of the market.
agreed. I will email them at the SoHo store beforehand. Tell them what I want and just retrieve it there if I need it urgently. The stores in NYC as they are presently configured are not ideal for Business Customers
True. The all in ones unless on lease seem like a bad idea for small enterprises. If the monitor goes bad the entire computer has to be sent away.
Indeed.
It's a step in the right direction, but I agree they need to show tangible value with the actual product.
I forgot this.
Goto Apple's website and price out a top level X-serve.
Nearly 10 grand and that is without RAID5 or on board raid, no SAS options, none of it.
It's pretty hard to spend 6K on a small business server, minus OS. 6K will buy you a dual Quad Core Nehalems, RAID5 w/ 15K SAS drives and 24 gigs of ram. With a 3 year on site 24/7/4 support contract.
Add on Apple OS support care and its 16K entry.
Those are some crazy prices for a box that for most businesses is nothing an over glorified file share. I understand these things may be used in rendering farms but that is a very small portion of the market.
Goto Apple's website and price out a top level X-serve.
Nearly 10 grand and that is without RAID5 or on board raid, no SAS options, none of it.
It's pretty hard to spend 6K on a small business server, minus OS. 6K will buy you a dual Quad Core Nehalems, RAID5 w/ 15K SAS drives and 24 gigs of ram. With a 3 year on site 24/7/4 support contract.
Add on Apple OS support care and its 16K entry.
Those are some crazy prices for a box that for most businesses is nothing an over glorified file share. I understand these things may be used in rendering farms but that is a very small portion of the market.
I'll go on...warranty.
It costs me $120 to cover a desktop PC we sell a customer for 3 years with on site NBD response.
I could 2:1 PC to Mac, with full on site warranty, maybe even 3:1 for a comparable Mac machine.
If they want to start bringing hardware prices down, and here is the kicker, make it worth it for SMB VAR's.
I called my wholesaler and said I was interested in reselling Apple.
If I remember right, 75K per year minimum in HW sales, dedicated Apple tech, and a brick and motar store front, which most SMB's do not have.
Along with that I assume a really crappy margin.
It costs me $120 to cover a desktop PC we sell a customer for 3 years with on site NBD response.
I could 2:1 PC to Mac, with full on site warranty, maybe even 3:1 for a comparable Mac machine.
If they want to start bringing hardware prices down, and here is the kicker, make it worth it for SMB VAR's.
I called my wholesaler and said I was interested in reselling Apple.
If I remember right, 75K per year minimum in HW sales, dedicated Apple tech, and a brick and motar store front, which most SMB's do not have.
Along with that I assume a really crappy margin.
Hopefully Apple will start beefing up Mac OS X to include more enterprise server features making it easier to manage, monitor, secure and scale systems.
On the server end I tend to favor FreeBSD and Solaris. Both offer built in virtualization/sandboxing (Jails and Zones) that allow better resource management, improved security and increased scalability.
FreeBSD is actively adding new features that Apple adds to Mac OS X like Grand Central Dispatch, OpenCL, launchd, LLVM, and Clang to name a few. Apple should borrow from FreeBSD and add Jails, the PF Firewall (originally from OpenBSD), FreeBSD's new network/routing core, capsicum (bleeding edge), a real ports system (macports is lacking), and other critcal features.
They should also add full ASLR and DEP. Additionally Apple should look into grid computing, when was the last time Xgrid was updated? Look at the Sun GridEngine, lustre and ZFS they should all be in Mac OS X. On a side note Apple needs to get back into storage or partner with NexSAN or ActiveStorage (ironically they are essentially the ex-XRaid engineers). Frankly PromiseRAID is a joke!
Apple needs to get serious about the enterprise and lead instead of sitting there all confused!
On the server end I tend to favor FreeBSD and Solaris. Both offer built in virtualization/sandboxing (Jails and Zones) that allow better resource management, improved security and increased scalability.
FreeBSD is actively adding new features that Apple adds to Mac OS X like Grand Central Dispatch, OpenCL, launchd, LLVM, and Clang to name a few. Apple should borrow from FreeBSD and add Jails, the PF Firewall (originally from OpenBSD), FreeBSD's new network/routing core, capsicum (bleeding edge), a real ports system (macports is lacking), and other critcal features.
They should also add full ASLR and DEP. Additionally Apple should look into grid computing, when was the last time Xgrid was updated? Look at the Sun GridEngine, lustre and ZFS they should all be in Mac OS X. On a side note Apple needs to get back into storage or partner with NexSAN or ActiveStorage (ironically they are essentially the ex-XRaid engineers). Frankly PromiseRAID is a joke!
Apple needs to get serious about the enterprise and lead instead of sitting there all confused!
I have to say the shift in enterprise attitude isn't particularly evident at the sales level. The process to receive a 5% enterprise discount is extraordinarily time- and labour-intensive.
Most business owners I know would rather just spend the extra 5% and go through the normal process. As a consultant, I tried to shepherd an employer of seven through the bewildering maze of forms and wound up losing the customer to the traditional retail channel. Said he, "Five percent discount just isn't sufficient."
I'm an Apple fan, but I believe the company will have to step up to the enterprise plate with more than a few engineers if it really wants to compete.
Most business owners I know would rather just spend the extra 5% and go through the normal process. As a consultant, I tried to shepherd an employer of seven through the bewildering maze of forms and wound up losing the customer to the traditional retail channel. Said he, "Five percent discount just isn't sufficient."
I'm an Apple fan, but I believe the company will have to step up to the enterprise plate with more than a few engineers if it really wants to compete.
The enterprise doesn't take Apple seriously because Apple doesn't take the enterprise seriously.
Apple Targeting Small Business Customers
I just completed reading all of the comments and apparently most of the respondents cannot read. The article said small business. Most of the comments were from large corporations and it looks like these people have never worked for a small company. Small companies are the backbone of this economy; they do not have high priced IT people nor cannot afford them. They want a simple reliable system they can understand. I have been using and installing Macs in small companies for over 10 years. POS, including inventory control, accounts receivable and payable programs are available. Apple also owns Filemaker where custom databases can be adapted from existing templates or self-written by the user without having a masters degree in Computer Science. Presently I am overwhelmed by the number of companies wanting to adapt the I Pad for use in specific small businesses. With the release of FMGO they can in most cases easily customize it to their specific needs without the hassle and expense of dealing with high priced IT people. Horary for Apple, finally someone is paying attention to us small guys. In all of the years of experience I have in servicing small companies it continues to amaze me, that aside for accounting, the number of companies not using the computing power already available.
I just completed reading all of the comments and apparently most of the respondents cannot read. The article said small business. Most of the comments were from large corporations and it looks like these people have never worked for a small company. Small companies are the backbone of this economy; they do not have high priced IT people nor cannot afford them. They want a simple reliable system they can understand. I have been using and installing Macs in small companies for over 10 years. POS, including inventory control, accounts receivable and payable programs are available. Apple also owns Filemaker where custom databases can be adapted from existing templates or self-written by the user without having a masters degree in Computer Science. Presently I am overwhelmed by the number of companies wanting to adapt the I Pad for use in specific small businesses. With the release of FMGO they can in most cases easily customize it to their specific needs without the hassle and expense of dealing with high priced IT people. Horary for Apple, finally someone is paying attention to us small guys. In all of the years of experience I have in servicing small companies it continues to amaze me, that aside for accounting, the number of companies not using the computing power already available.
"small" business is 50-100 employee's and with costs in the PC world coming down "small" do it the same way the enterprise does it.
I have customers with 4-5 employee's and we set them up exactly as we would an enterprise customer, a few things are hosted versus in house but they get the same capability.
At a very inexpensive price point. What cost an enterprise customer 150K 10 years ago now costs a small business 10K, if that.