Apple Targeting Small Business Customers at Retail Stores

[adjuster]

How many users are you supporting with this setup.

Ten in my company, another 12 clients.

This setup would not work with a middle-size company. Although Kerio seems to be robust. I would be concerned about Drop-Box holding enough data for large enterprises. I am using their beta "Dropbox for Teams" which is the industrial strength version and starts with 350gb storage.

Again, why do you think FileVault presents a potential problem?

BTW, the only issues I have been having are with the holdouts clinging to their beloved PC's.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Um, okay. How about Apple follows through with SMB level tech support, as well? You know, next business day, on site repair, dedicated phone support, reliable mac/windows networking... need I go on?

 

[backdraft]

I completely agree, why should "enterprise" features be kept away from small businesses.

Exchange, Active Directory etc... are considered "enterprise" software, yet they are available for small businesses

http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/default.aspx

What does "Enterprise" really mean anyway? Is software/hardware classified as "Enterprise" class because of price or perhaps for being overly complex for the sake of complexity (aka "Enterprisey")?

Apple should have advanced features for all types businesses no matter the size 1, 2, 5, 10,000,000! Its irrelevant, at the end of the day the software/hardware has to deliver and be easy to use and maintain, be reliable, scalable, secure etc...

Those are characteristics that every piece of software and hardware that Apple makes should strive or surpass. The experience of using consumer and enterprise products shouldn't differ. Apple has the opportunity to change the perception of typical "enterprise" software by making it easier and more intuitive to use. The same applies to hardware.

Now only if they would fix their their warranty/repair programs. A great example, I called Apple because one of the iMac's at work had video card issues that were pretty clear with pixel artifacts all over the screen. I told the Apple rep the issue and I even suggested to send a picture of the screen so they can see it first hand. I suggested they send a replacement video card.

Apple sent a consultant down, he looked at the iMac and agreed it was the video card. So we called the Apple, the rep had to follow policy even though the consultant confirmed that it was a video card issue. The next day the Apple consultant arrives with the part Apple sent for replacement.

You would believe it to be a video card but nooooo it was a hard drive! To cut the story short, apparently the Apple Rep had to exhaust all resources and before he could send a video card to fix the issue.

So two weeks, two hard drives and a logic board later, Apple finally sends the video card. Those are really strange procedures... Even after confirming with the consultant.

I would hate to see what the premiere service is like. Shoot you call Dell up, give them a serial number for the machine and you tell them the part you need, they send it along with a box to ship the defective part back, with no hassle! Is it really that difficult Apple? Until Apple fixes their repair/warranty policies and procedures, I'm afraid they wont gain much on the business side.

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.

 

[jameszjn]

I wonder how Apple could convince and sell their hardware with premium price to small business companies who are PROFIT driven which also means LOW cost more job done with their limited investment and resource, in this economics. Dump what you already invested and switch boat?

 

[backdraft]

Leasing is an option:
http://www.apple.com/financing/leases/commercial/

Then when tax season comes around list it as an expense.

I wonder how Apple could convince and sell their hardware with premium price to small business companies who are PROFIT driven which also means LOW cost more job done with their limited investment and resource, in this economics. Dump what you already invested and switch boat?

 

[jameszjn]

Leasing is an option:
http://www.apple.com/financing/leases/commercial/

Then when tax season comes around list it as an expense.

good idea. never heard of that..

 

[ctucci]

Hmm...

So this means a engineering degree will net you $16-18/hour at Apple now?

I've dealt with engineers who would be overpaid at that amount.

 

[ctucci]

Believe it or not Small Business is harder than Large.

Thank God someone said it.

 

[snberk103]

From 15 to 25, it's a "mini" business. And from 2 to 15, it's a "nano" business.

I know, I know!!! And if the business is 25 to 50 "massage therapists" its a 'Touch'.

Update: jameszjn said "I wonder how Apple could convince and sell their hardware with premium price to small business companies who are PROFIT driven which also means LOW cost more job done with their limited investment and resource, in this economics. Dump what you already invested and switch boat?"

A successful business doesn't buy the cheapest tools, they buy good tools because in the long run good tools make save the company money. As a photographer, I don't buy a cheap point and shoot - I buy the best tool for the job, and it's not going to be the cheapest camera sold.

Also, I posted a link earlier that you must have missed by Pfeiffer Research that indicates the Macs and PCs are priced the same when you take into account the price of the system over the lifespan that the systems are actually used. It's more than just purchase price....

 

[TRONgK]

New MacBook Air on the picture

Isn't it the new smaller MacBook Air on the right picture ?

 

[gtsipad]

I just landed a position at the apple store near me (dang, i'm going to get flamed now aren't i?) and i am super excited to get on board with this initiative. I've got years of working with small businesses serving as a tech consultant and computer troubleshooter, fixing problems, setting up networks, etc.

Also, this will be my last active post now that I am an employee of Apple, but peace to you all and i will be lurking, so behave!

 

[MacKeeperFanMod]

Funny…. this article never mentioned the Macs. iPads and iPhones are nice and can be useful for small businesses. But you need something like full-fledged Microsoft Office or a real database like FileMaker to run and operate and manage a small biz. And THOSE things need… a Macintosh. Not some dinky iPad or iPhone. My point? This strategy will probably help grow Macintosh platform a ton…. even tho Steve Jobs only in mind the iPads/iPhones.

If Jobs ends up ignoring the Mac platform while he pursues this “small biz offensive” strictly for handheld iPads and iPhones, then he deserves to fail.

 

[KnightWRX]

What does "Enterprise" really mean anyway? Is software/hardware classified as "Enterprise" class because of price or perhaps for being overly complex for the sake of complexity (aka "Enterprisey")?

Enterprise means I can do about anything to it with barely any downtime. Switch out power supplies, CPUs, RAM without even downing the machine. I can replicate terabytes of data offsite in under 20 minutes without having to ask the customer stop is I/O on the data. It means I can manage thousand of users without having to do everything by hand. If I have a hardware failure that brings down a machine, my applications and data is available in a few minutes on a remote site or a 2nd machine without human intervention. If I lose a disk, I don't lose any of the data on it nor does it even impact my redundancy or the data's online availability.

I could go on...

Sure that might mean the hardware is more complex, the software is more complex, but in the end, the time savings and cost savings are enormous. We're not talking about using Dropbox to share confidential information here. I wonder what the nice folk at Dropbox does with said information ? I sure would hate a 3rd party being involved in my sensitive transfers....

or a real database like FileMaker

This is a joke post right ?

 

[ddenoff]

'business uptake'

As an AAPL shareholder, and a power user, it's always perplexing to call Apple Care with a question on a high-level application like Final Cut Studio, and be told, "well, FCP isn't really designed as a professional application"! or to be told the same thing about MAIL.

Those of us who rejected Avid in favor of FCP, or Outlook in favor of Mail, certainly are confused by these statements. I'm a Broadway producer as well as a telecom entrepreneur. Been around keyboards since the PDP-10 days (still have a Teletype). But an APPLICATION is just that and it's absurd to say that Mail isn't a business application as an excuse for a shortcoming or two.

Perhaps the CULTURE at Apple needs to recognize this and CHANGE. not EVERYONE who loves Apple products wants to 'rock on' to the latest Green Day or Lady Gaga hit while waiting on hold, or be presumed to only be t-shirt wearing hipsters. (ok, we're still hipsters). Not that Apple should adopt the MSFT or Cisco culture either - far from it.

but please RECOGNIZE that to GROW market share in the business world, you need to do more within the Apple family than support EXCHANGE (UGH!)

OH - and by the way - please tell INTUIT that their MAC version of Quickbooks PRO is absurdly lacking in BASIC accounting functions (like showing all open invoices for a vendor) and that their excuse of "well, mac is different than PC" is insane - an APPLICATION is just that, and functionality should be cross-platform and cross-OS...that's the whole point of application programming, right??

I'm all for it and I'm available, Steve, to come on board and put my money where my mouth is.

 

[VicMacs]

What is the state of how well OS X works in a business environment? I use a Mac (or two ) at home and love it, but at work we have standardized on PCs. Is there anything like ActiveDirectory for OS X, both in terms of having some sort of domain logon (I believe LDAP or LDAP with OpenDirectory can take care of this) and something like Group Policy, SCCM, and all the other things that can be used to manage Windows environments?

For example, we have a lab of Windows PCs that we reimaged yesterday remotely via OSD (an SCCM feature). By the time we got there with the replacement machines, the old ones in the lab were imaged and ready for their new placement. Additionally, we routinely push out software updates automatically.

Are there similar solutions for OS X? (Or maybe this is why they're saying small business...)

yeah everything.. just go ask at an apple store…. its what they do every day!

 

[VicMacs]

As an AAPL shareholder, and a power user, it's always perplexing to call Apple Care with a question on a high-level application like Final Cut Studio, and be told, "well, FCP isn't really designed as a professional application"! or to be told the same thing about MAIL.

Those of us who rejected Avid in favor of FCP, or Outlook in favor of Mail, certainly are confused by these statements. I'm a Broadway producer as well as a telecom entrepreneur. Been around keyboards since the PDP-10 days (still have a Teletype). But an APPLICATION is just that and it's absurd to say that Mail isn't a business application as an excuse for a shortcoming or two.

Perhaps the CULTURE at Apple needs to recognize this and CHANGE. not EVERYONE who loves Apple products wants to 'rock on' to the latest Green Day or Lady Gaga hit while waiting on hold, or be presumed to only be t-shirt wearing hipsters. (ok, we're still hipsters). Not that Apple should adopt the MSFT or Cisco culture either - far from it.

but please RECOGNIZE that to GROW market share in the business world, you need to do more within the Apple family than support EXCHANGE (UGH!)

OH - and by the way - please tell INTUIT that their MAC version of Quickbooks PRO is absurdly lacking in BASIC accounting functions (like showing all open invoices for a vendor) and that their excuse of "well, mac is different than PC" is insane - an APPLICATION is just that, and functionality should be cross-platform and cross-OS...that's the whole point of application programming, right??

I'm all for it and I'm available, Steve, to come on board and put my money where my mouth is.

I agree and would like to be part of the uptake!

I have a Mac selling business, and I only use OSX, but guess who does my accounting? another company that is windows oriented, I have an xserve that runs my filemaker taylor made POS system with our apple repair shop module and everything… its the cheapest you can get to run a small business 1-20 but theres almost nothing out there to handle a 20+ (200-500) people environment thats renown…

I recently found this app that runs on Mac, Linux, Windows, iPhone and iPad and I see it selling VERY WELL

http://www.hansaworld.com/global

I started using pdfs made on pages, so filemaker was a definite step up, and we have developed some pretty cool things with filemaker but, seriously, you need a big filemaker programmer to get good, custom stuff done… and theres nothing organised around it….

now what if… what if apple BOUGHT hansa like it bought filemaker?

heres a bit from hansa's webpage

About HansaWorld
For more than 20 years, HansaWorld has been helping its customers to successfully run their businesses with HansaWorld business systems.

HansaWorld provides a single, integrated solution covering Accounts, Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management. Unusual for an ERP vendor, HansaWorld has also developed fully integrated vertical market solutions for hotels, restaurants, retail, professional services, manufacturing, membership, rental and training companies.

HansaWorld is a technology leader, including delivering the following solutions that integrate with all other parts of the software:

* Email (client and server)
* Document Management
* Workflow
* Graphical Scheduling
* eCommerce
* Built-in wide-area networking (no need for Citrix/Terminal Services)
* IP telephony
* Mobile clients for PDAs, Symbian SmartPhones and iPhones
* Server and client versions on almost all modern operating systems.

The HansaWorld Group includes 17 offices in all the major continents, has distribution coverage in 70 countries and has sold more than 73,000 customers in around 110 countries.

Apple could use this bigtime, I for one am starting with hansa hopefully this coming 2011, its in at around 14K for the whole system integration, they kinda take over you for a couple of months and help you do the switch… then its like 150 bucks a month...

its like theyre the apple of the business application world!

Seriously I would definitely be interested in working for Apple in latina america, I can build the empire in the south!! its you and me Steve!!!

Apple is focusing on the business clients, good, they alredy give hefty discounts to businesses! like 8-10 % off !!!

I wonder what Apple uses in their own offices? I think its SAP, I read it somewhere…

 

[G4er?]

This is great, but I think the biggest current limitation for Apple is the lack of a little bit more variety in the desktop area. There should be a a desktop model (with BYODKM) more powerful, and perhaps bigger than a Mac mini, while less powerful than a Mac Pro. The iMac sort of fills this role, but there are a lot of areas in business and even education where the iMac is an awkward fit. A bigger and slightly more powerful version of a Mac mini would be perfect for this.

If I was running my own business the first thing I would want in a computer is room for two internal hard drives so I can always back up data and not an all in one. Why pay to replace everything when only the monitor or computer goes bad. Sounds like Apple needs something between the mini and the Pro if they are going after small businesses.

 

[Minuteman3]

I would applaud this move, as clearly Apple needs help in this area. Case in point, I'm trying my best to get a startup to use Mac's vs PCs. I sent off a lengthy email to the "Business" guy at my local Apple store asking both technical and product related questions. I also stopped by a few days later and dropped off my card. That was three weeks ago ... no response.

So, I filled out an online form at Apple.com in the business section's "contact us" area asking similar questions and requested either email or a call back ... no response in over a week.

I'm actually an independent MS Small Business Specialist, and get a lot of support for things like this from MS. My responses for similar information are both quick and complete from MS.

So far, Apple is rating a F on this one.

And yet, I'm hopeful that I can either figure it out on my own or use forums for my Qs and As to learn how to plan and execute this deployment. Clearly, I'm not going to get any help from Apple!!

(FYI - client does a lot of international work and will have folks on the move a lot. No needs that cannot be met through iWork and the other "i" apps. I'm convinced a Mac solution would be their best choice.)

Cheers!!

Ken

 

[carlgo]

Small businesses usually run funky specialty software made for their specific industry. This is all Windows stuff and much of if is designed to work with old versions of Windows because owners hate to update.

This means running windows on Macs, if the switch is made.

Owners have no, zero, interest in specs, roadmaps, etc.

All they want is lower costs and fewer problems.

It might actually be easier to fashion entirely new software/hardware packages for specific industries. Doctor's offices are one example.

 

[alent1234]

i'm a MS guy that deals mostly with enterprise MS products but i've helped a few small businesses along the way

from now on when people ask me for advice i say go cloud. google apps or MS Live Office or whatever it's called. i've seen small 5-10 person employee operations buy servers and Windows Server software and it costs too much money for someone of their size.

you can make an argument for buying an iMac or MacBook vs Wintel but not xServes. HP/Dell have much better and cheaper server products and it's cheaper to use cloud services instead of buying servers

 

[alent1234]

yeah everything.. just go ask at an apple store…. its what they do every day!

does openldap on OS X come with a schema you can use out of the box like Active Directory? the killer feature about AD is that if you had it since Windows 2000 you can upgrade it every version and every LDAP enabled application that MS ships will work with it as long as you are running a minimum version which only changes once every 7 years or so.

and everyone is shipping AD integrated apps that work since the schema is pretty stable.

 

[RT2020]

Dear Steve Jobs,

You might want to take at least a couple people from the iToys devisions and put them back on OSX....just a couple.

Businesses are not going to be interested in a product that was last truly updated in 2007

Why would businesses go with Apple? Expensive, outdated hardware? Slow update cycles? Lack for information about upcoming products?

They can treat the average consumer like an idiot, but not the average business.

 

[dylin]

Worried about the affects of this move a little.

Hi, im new here and just wanted to ask a few questions.

I noticed that there are already 5 pages about how people are excited by the direction that they are headed with this, but doesn't this mean that Apple will continue to gain more market share?

And if that occurs, doesn't that also mean the increase in risks such as being targeted due to more of the market being under Apple?

I guess to say this in another way would be, since MS does own about 90% of the market, that is one of the main reasons that they have been attacked in terms of viruses and malware because of the high popularity they have. So if Apple begins to dominate, then wouldn't that end up harming them further down the line?

Im not really sure if that is how it all works, but i also thought that Steve Jobs was all about trying to help the consumer over business or Enterprises.

Again, im not exactly sure how this works, or maybe somebody could help explain to me the benefits of this move, i would greatly appreciate it.

 

[jameszjn]

If you have already bought a Nikon SLR with several high end lens which is sufficient for what you need and are very happy with the investment already, would you switch all you gears to Canon? pay more and start over again?

Apple tools' good tools does not necessarily imply PC tools' bad.

I know, I know!!! And if the business is 25 to 50 "massage therapists" its a 'Touch'.

Update: jameszjn said "I wonder how Apple could convince and sell their hardware with premium price to small business companies who are PROFIT driven which also means LOW cost more job done with their limited investment and resource, in this economics. Dump what you already invested and switch boat?"

A successful business doesn't buy the cheapest tools, they buy good tools because in the long run good tools make save the company money. As a photographer, I don't buy a cheap point and shoot - I buy the best tool for the job, and it's not going to be the cheapest camera sold.

Also, I posted a link earlier that you must have missed by Pfeiffer Research that indicates the Macs and PCs are priced the same when you take into account the price of the system over the lifespan that the systems are actually used. It's more than just purchase price....

 

[Eric-PTEK]

I completely agree, why should "enterprise" features be kept away from small businesses.

Exchange, Active Directory etc... are considered "enterprise" software, yet they are available for small businesses

http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/default.aspx.

When I say Enterprise I mean a lot of things. Certain technologies and an approach to IT.

Most really small businesses have a computer because they have to. The don't understand why IT should be a ROI and not a cost. They don't approach it like a bigger business would.

So when we approach our small business customers with Enterprise solutions, yes it is Exchange(hosted), disaster recovery, redundancy, redundant and secure data backup, WAF's, IPS's, etc.

Not only is the software Enterprise, but so is the approach. Most smaller businesses have the local computer store support them, and then yes, it is a cost.

They've never heard of Total Cost of Ownership and after we show them how they make this massive investment(by their standards) for basically an overpriced NAS instead of using the server to manage their business and security.

I've seen some REALLY bad stuff out there. I just replaced a server for a customer that someone put in a few months ago. Yes it was a Xeon 3430, with 2 gb ram, 1 single SATA drive, no RAID, no backup, nothing. They were running AD, certificate services, SQL, and EXCHANGE....they were running Exchange because they wanted a group calendar! Their email was still POP.

Thing took forever to boot and was nearly unresponsive. Why in the hell they put Exchange on there for a shared calendar is beyond me. We moved them to hosted exchange and put SharePoint on the new server for the calendar. Totally different approach to their business.