Re: Re: Powerbooks aren't the only notebooks!
Originally posted by elgruga
Sorry, it just doesnt work that way in the real world.
If the CEO uses a Powerbook, and then he says "Hey, why dont we all have one of these?" it gets passed on to the VP operations and then to the Chief Technical Officer, and then to 3 or 4 guys who will do an 'evaluation' because "the boss wants to know if we can use Apple". They all fall about laughing for a few minutes, and then they quickly write up a memo explaining why that cant happen, and thats the end of it.
CEO's dont care what the company uses as long as it doesnt negatively impact the bottom line.
If the "tech" guys say its time to use the abacus - thats what will happen.
The CEO's dont have time to get into these issues in any depth, they are too busy arguing with shareholders, meetings etc.etc
I agree that this pressure exists, but there are many types of small business, a I think you're looking at all businesses as being the same kind of animal.
In schools, for instance, IT support staff are often few in number. They're not there to create work for themselves, and hence the Mac makes a good platform for the pupil network.
However, the decision on which many schools (for instance) would make the purchase, and I know this for a fact since my father is a headteacher, lies ultimately with the figure in charge of this small business and his financial staff. They have to be able to show accountability in their spending on new Mac machines, particularly where there are much cheaper Windows boxes available.
School governors, for instance, will often be the ones to exert a certain pressure upon headteachers to buy wintel machines with arguments such as "well, everyone uses windows these days. Why are you doggedly sticking with Macintosh?", which are persuasive to the non-technical. If Apple's machines have a better price/MHz ratio, then this negative pressure can be countered more effectively. If headteachers are drawn to powerbooks as a result of their reputation for being streets ahead of Intel-based notebooks, then a degree of Mac-advocacy is all the more likely from the headteacher in the face of pro-windows propaganda. This is certainly the situation in schools where IT purchasing is not dictated on a county-wide level, the schools that fall under the umbrella of 'small business'.
Turning to the kind of businesses you're talking about, with the UNIX implementation in Mac OS X, Apple is tentatively hoping to show the technical geeks that their OS is industrial-strength and that they can meddle with the command line as much as they like, therefore making it attractive to the technically-minded. But this is unlikely to bring Macs into businesses if there's no top-down pressure for change from CEOs etc. They're the ones who are interested in the quality and finish of Apple's hardware, even if they then run Windows emulation software on it, as I have often seen.
So essentially, CEOs are converted by the hardware, then the techs MIGHT be convinced to look at the software.
Which all brings us back to the centrality of the powerbook for Apple in business markets. This is why it needs updating urgently from its sorry 667MHz iteration.
And to reply to Q-Bert
"No, normal folks - the ones who Macintoshes are designed for, really - are USING their computers. To talk to each other, to get work done, to communicate, to create things, whatever. The ups and downs of the tech industry and the current speed at which motherboards run at aren't at the forefront of their minds, and frankly, I think they're better for it. They recognize that the computer is a tool, not an infant that must be watched and fussed over at all times. "
This is rubbish. I've worked in computer sales and can tell you that people know the figures for processors. They're even starting to know about the MHz myth thanks to AMD's new numbering methods, but they won't be persuaded that a 667MHz G4 is as fast as a 2.2 GHz mobile P4. They want value for money, bang for the buck, and place this above ease of use, unfortunately.
