“Apple Inc., without much effort on its part, is making rapid headway in selling to corporations,” Peter Burrows reports for Businessweek.
“After years of being the also-ran to Microsoft Corp. in the workplace, Apple has seen its iPad become a standard business tool,” Burrows reports. “According to an IDG Connect survey, 51 percent of managers with iPads say they “always” use the device at work, and another 40 percent sometimes do. Seventy-nine percent of the respondents use the iPad for business when outside the office.”
Burrows reports, ” iPad faces little competition among corporations such as financial services and pharmaceutical firms. Apple’s iPhone, meanwhile, is the top-selling smartphone, forcing businesses to accommodate workers who use it. That has helped set the stage for Apple’s Mac computer to make its own inroads in the corporate world.”
“Apple sold 3.8 million Mac computers to companies in the past fiscal year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That amounts to 3 percent of the market,” Burrows reports. “If Apple were to boost that to 18 million Macs a year, similar to the sales level of No. 3 PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd., it would bring in about $23 billion. Given workers’ desire to use Apple products, the company would probably be able to reach that point with far less investment than rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co. or Dell Inc., said Anand Srinivasan, an analyst at Bloomberg Industries.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
Apple broke Microsoft’s lock on the enterprise. It’s only a matter of time for obiquity there too.
Ballmer must feel like the technician in the Fukushima control room as the tsunami is bearing down on the plant.
too soon
Too Soon..! Just way too Soon..!
Yeah, but he’s sitting in his control room saying, “it can’t see me, it can’t see me”, thinking that Gartner and IDC told him, the waves wouldn’t get more than 20 feet high, and his breakwater is 24 feet high, and they’re never wrong; and lastly, he’s got diesel generator backups just outside. So what if they’re barely above ground level, the water won’t come over the breakwater, cause his experts have told him so.
More like Homer Simpson sitting in the Springfield control room, trying to decide if he wants sprinkles or chocolate glazed donuts, and wondering what that loud noise and flashing red lights mean.
+1
The article is very much incorrect. Apple has worked in every arena in which they compete. According to Steve, they really patented the iPhone and the iPad – That hard work is now paying off as business people start to use the device for business. But to say that Apple is succeeding without trying is totally wrong on the authors part.
I would’ve loved to have seen a smart quip for an MDN take about that.
I agree. Author is an idiot. Business is incredibly hard. Apple, as is usual, looked more deeply, and understood that developing a model that catered to the enterprise was:
1) Highly competitive, as HP, Microsoft, IBM, and now Dell, Oracle, etal are already meeting that groups needs.
2) absolutely pointless if you go after the consumer / private individual.
Apple correctly deeply understood, that if you can build a good structure to support the individual, that the individual would carry you into the Enterprise. It as the checkmate strategy of the game that no one else understood or played.
What they mean is that Apple does pretty much NOTHING to directly go after the corporate market. All the other large companies in the PC space (hardware and software) have specialized sales and marketing divisions that are directed at enterprise accounts. Apple never did this in a big way, and they still don’t.
Apple is infiltrating enterprise mainly because users first began insisting on using their own Apple devices, which cracked open the door to enterprise networks.
Exactly! Where I work, we’re a big IBM shop, so they have a special sales rep working with us. The guy comes over almost every month. He often used to bring US Open tickets (tennis), Knicks tickets, he took us to special presentations (which included lavish lunches)… Not anymore, as our new ethics guidelines prevent accepting such offerings, but he still keeps coming, sweet-talking middle management…
Every single competitor of Apple has extremely aggressive and active enterprise marketing team. Apple clearly does NOT. There is a valid point here.
This headline makes me think of the old joke about a duck: Calm above water, but paddling furiously below.
Businesses want to use the best and most convenient tools. Unfortunately for the Mac, it was not the most convenient tool because Apple didn’t make it easy for developers, plus it kept using proprietary connectors and other specialty hardware.
The iPhone and iPad are the best and most convenient tools, plus Apple has made it extremely attractive for developers. The App Store is brilliant, and having the single dock connector on all iOS devices makes it easy for third party hardware developers to create products to expand capabilities.
Apple learned from its loss to Windows. Ironically, Microsoft seems to now be making things difficult for developers with Windows.
This is kind of biblical because the bible says:
“..But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”. (Matthew 6:33)
Apple has focused on getting thing done correctly and provide the best products no matter what, and everything else came to apple just because they were good to its customers.
Apple only sells 3.8 million computers a quarter so if they sell 18 million a quarter they will make more money.
Given that thinking why not just sell 180 millions computers a quarter? If only it was that simple. Gee, what an idiot.
Dang Troy!
That’s pretty much what I was going to say. Focusinmm on building and being the best .. The customers will naturally come a-knocking. And that’s what they’ve done.
They didn’t play the “margins” game trying to nickel and dime on each component-substituting plastic for metal and ‘almost as good’ for spec – exceeding.
Jobs said pc manufacturers and assembliers can only differentiate on (razor-thin margins) price, so their only tactic is to us keep cutting the price/ quality.