March 27, 2008
2009 – Year of Apple in the Enterprise?
2009 is going to be the year Apple finally starts making real inroads into the Enterprise Environment. Well, at least on the iPhone side. With the announcement that they’ve licensed Microsoft’s ActiveSync to allow iPhone access to Microsoft Exchange Servers. On the surface this isn’t that big of a deal, but access to Exchange Server has been the RIM’s big selling point for their Blackberry device.
Publicly these companies are not scared. Behind the scenes it’s got to be totally different story. That Apple routinely sells out and rumors have been confirmed that they recently placed an order for 10 Million more phones has got to have these guys panicing. Ten Million phones is a drop in the bucket compared to what they’re selling. But the growth curve in sales is the real indicator of their success.
Add in the fact that Apple computer sales are jumping every quarter also… and well you’ve got the picture.
But the iPhone alone will not conquer the Enterprise Environment. But it will be a good way to get more machines where it matters. On the desks of CEO, Senior Management, etc, who will demand that their computer “just works” with their current environment. The challenges to do so are many. But this would FORCE Apple to acknowledge their short comings here and fix them.
This is why I predict 2009. There will be a new iPhone announcement soon. 3G is too big of an improvement for it NOT to happen. Most likely this will be at WWDC 2008. Coupled with Apple’s “lesser” announcements at WWDC and product shipping in late 2008, it’ll be 2009 before we start seeing changes.
The other reason I predict this is because this is how Microsoft got into the Enterprise Environment. They worked on the home users, small businesses, and “forced” their way into the big environment. On the other hand, Apple may surprise us. Steve Jobs does have a knack for doing the unpredictable, and making it work.
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I was agreeing with you until the last reason. Apple was dominant in the school and personal computer market when the PC appeared. It was IBM, not Microsoft, who initiated the PC and it was aimed at large businesses where IBM already had sales and support ties. To IBM’s shame they weren’t focused on this market, merely trying to block Apple from making inroads with customers running IBM mainframes. They didn’t copyright or patent their PC design, so when the drawings leaked they were faced with upstart PC hardware competitors they never contemplated would exist. IBM was afraid of the VisiCalc spreadsheet program that came out on the Apple II in 1979. Microsoft got into the corporate world through IBM selecting them for their PC OS. Their earlier OS efforts failed. You might have said that Apple could easily push a broader server line with the same software services and only a single license fee per server, not seats. While the iPhone will likely be a success in corporations, it’s a much broader spectrum of needs and costs that will hold back on Apple’s desktop penetration. If IT departments come to like iPhones and their capabilities it will break down their initial resistance to all things Apple.
You are correct, Apple was already around when the PC was created. But it was not used heavily in the business world. That was certainly a critical time for Apple and they dropped the ball. On the other hand, perhaps just as now they never really considered the Corporate world as a place to sell computers.
What kinds of needs and costs do you see holding back Apple’s entrance into IT departments these? The groundwork is already there, Open Directory interacting with Active Directory being the single biggest piece in my opinion. Apple’s biggest problem is that they do not FIX the tools they’ve provided. OD should work with AD a lot better, even if Microsoft isn’t playing nice and giving them specs. Software Update in OS X Server needs to have two tiers – one for Beta Testing and one for full scale roll out. Apple Remote Desktop has come a long ways, but I feel it still breaks down in large installations – I’m talking 400+ computers.
But, the iPhone is going to be a subtle enabler for all this. I know of several large PC-Centric enterprises that are already working on integrating the iPhone into their network. This WILL leverage more Apple Desktop machines in the door, just like Linux and Windows before it. I wonder if Steve Jobs planned it this way, or if he’s going to wake up and seize the opportunity.