“Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – Apple’s 5 stages of enterprise grief are still in its first stage. As you recall, the company lost out to Microsoft in the eighties by its lack of enterprise understanding. Sadly, it appears to be déjà vu all over again,” Mark Fidelman writes for Forbes.
“Apple’s enterprise philosophy seems to consist of one sentence, ‘I’ll sell you anything you want as long as it’s for the consumer.’ Why Apple hasn’t learned from its history lessons is something they’ll need to take up with its shareholders in the future,” Fidelman writes. “For now, they are still drunk from the success of their mobile products.”
Fidelman writes, “For Microsoft, the history lesson seems to be that if you don’t get your enterprise strategy right you won’t get your financials right, which is why they don’t believe the view that Apple has found the magic formula of forcing IT departments to accept its products without so much as a phone call. While Apple’s strategy appears to be working in the short term, it will soon fall victim to either a Microsoft, IBM or Google focus on creating holistic enterprise experiences with devices and software.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: BYOD is not a passing fad, it is the future of enterprise computing. The reign of the IT doofus is over. Fidelman is wrong.
Fidelman offers a bunch of opinions, but not facts to back them up. We offer the related articles below:
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Thats because Apple is greedy, it believes the world owes it something. With the uptake of android in australia now at 70% , with the iphone decline as much as 45% id say the history repeats saga for apple is about to show its ugly head. AUST is only an example, i cant speak for other countries.
How Oz goes, so goes the world.
Oh, wait…
Chris, how many times has mom asked you not to drop acid on a school night?
I like how Apple makes twice as much money with their market share then Android with its “leading market share”.
‘market share then Android’.
Do schools teach English any more? Than is different to then. Maybe?
We see you lost out on the real GenePool, do tell us how you 3rd grade education has made you the person you are today.
Look’s as if we have a bona fide Grammer hound on our hands people.
Classic. You misspelled “grammar”. Moron. Guess you didn’t quite make the 3rd grade.
Um, there is no apostrophe in Looks. Unless you mnean Mr Look?
Jean,
Simple answer, no. (Phonics)
I do applaud your effort but like text messaging, expecting proper english or typing in a blog will probably just frustrate you. Maybe you should take botvinik’s advice. haha
Than is different THAN then.
English was my lowest score on the ACT.
I only had a 27 for it…
Agree! Market share does not matter to Apple, it is the “profits”!
And yet MSFT’s stock price is still in the high 20s/low 30s, which it has been for the past decade AT LEAST! This year alone, AAPL has appreciated 55.9%, “chris,” not to mention its phenomenal performance over the past 10! RIght now, Apple Inc. is 2.35 times larger than Microsoft . . . with the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini yet to be released for sale!
Microsofties live in the past, with their heads in the sand as well. “Just wait until next year,” they always say. Yeah, “Metro” (or whatever they have to rebrand it now) will set the computing/enterprise world on fire, they always say. Yeah, right. Ain’t gonna happen, Softies. Enjoy your stagnation.
Hey Cris, what the hell you been sniffing?
70%, really? your using faulty data. Learn the difference between shipped and manufactured troll.
not your, you’re. Couldn’t help myself. As if I give a rip.
Haven’t learn the difference between shipped and sold yet?
MDN’s take is true for mobile devices, but enterprise desktop computing is just something Apple’s been ignoring for years. I guess apple figures it makes such a large margin on mobile devices that ignoring enterprise is fine, but in the long run, it can hurt them.
I’d like to see OSX server licensed for VMWare since they got rid of the XServe.
“For Microsoft, the history lesson seems to be that if you don’t get your enterprise strategy right you won’t get your financials right”- if a decade of flatlined stock appreciation is Forbes definition of “getting your financials right”, I’d rather be wrong. And they have the gall to suggest that Apple will have to answer to shareholders?! Bwa-ha, that’s rich!
Remember, in 1999 M$ was a 600 billion + company. They have lost 400 billion of it since.
He obviously hasn’t used any of Apple’s tools and services to manage iPads and iPhones in the work place because if he had he would know how enterprise friendly Apple has become.
He points to Apple’s past failures as an explanation as to why Apple will fail but times have changed, the mobile space is a completely different game. Sadly like Microsoft he hasn’t seen how the landscape has changed and is instead stuck with an outdated view on the industry, it’s all pretty sad. @echoofthefuture
SJ recognized long ago that serving enterprise is a losing game. Why try to cater to people who demand the thinnest of margins on the cheapest possible hardware, and in the process let them tell you how to design your products? Witness the “success” folks like Dell and MS have had with that model. Fidelman just doesn’t get it.
+4 Totally agree, but enterprise is slowly waking up. They see the lack of need for such heavy IT support. My reply to his article was..:
WOW, it just starts now…. or is it now….. or now… Well Microsoft will always win.. cause its so big.
Plays for sure
Zune
WinCE
Bob
Kin 1 and Kin 2
etc
“For Microsoft, the history lesson seems to be that if you don’t get your enterprise strategy right you won’t get your financials right,”
Yep, for Microsoft, its ALL about the money. Sell crap if you need to but sell, sell, sell.
And for the enterprise who was looking for the cheapest piece of junk so it can keep costs low, that was the package. But now they are getting a taste of the Apple, make it great, way. Hardware and software that just works and does not need an army of IT telling it how to manage.
Sorry but I was talking to a PC based business manager yesterday. He just go his first Apple iPhone. His comment, WOW, this thing is great. It just works…
He paused, looked distressed and when I asked him what was wrong…. He said.. It is going to cost us a ton of money to change to all Apple equipment….. He just saw the future. LOL
Tell him how the Total Cost is a wash or better because of the better quality, the better support, and lesser need for IT support from his company. (which is one reason IT does not like it)
Oh Mark Fidelman, drunk with ignorance and a huge lump on your head. I suppose banging your head all week to come up with this is better than nothing. But, have at it. Like Microsoft said when the iPhone first come to market: Expensive, no keyboard, not a great business phone, and there products had a keyboard. They liked there statergy a lot. Now so do you. Let history move forward and see who has forgotten the past. Mr. Fidelman, you may just like to reach over to that DVR remote and press fast forward until live mode is seen. We do not want you to be too far in the past. LOL
In the end Apple wants to pull a Google and be in ultimate control. Meaning if Apple could have their way everyone including enterprise would be using their devices, software, and cloud services. Apple would have no problem building out data centers if it meant that they were going to get enterprise companies to lease them and buy Apple devices for their employees. The problem is no company wants to give Apple that kind of control. I agree Apple may not be as nefarious as Google, but the amount of control they want is unreasonable.
“The problem is no company wants to give Apple that kind of control. I agree Apple may not be as nefarious as Google, but the amount of control they want is unreasonable.”
So IT departments don’t want to give Apple so much control, but they’re willing to give it to Microsoft? Flawed Logic at it’s best.
Factis, Apple is the largest company in the world DESPITE it’s small enterprise presence. Someone might want to point that out to Mr. Fieldman.
Total crap:
if Apple could have their way everyone including enterprise would be using their devices…. no company wants to give Apple that kind of control.
Right. So that’s why OS X is the single most other-OS friendly operating system on the planet. Would you care to put your other foot in your mouth as well?!
Even an IT doofus knows it’s Microsoft with the control freak problems. It’s called ‘User Abuse’ and Microsoft are the masters. Nothing-at-all indicates Apple has ever had designs on a monopoly.
I’m going to bet that your problem is not comprehending that Apple has consistently been superior because they wed together BOTH hardware AND software. This is a foreign concept on other computer platforms and it shows. The spectacular results of this wedding justify the philosophy and have nothing to do with seeking ToTaL ConTroL oF tHe WOrLD! 😛
What you fail to see is that Microsoft first broke into enterprise taking over from IBM they did it the exactly the same way Apple is going about it. Go after consumer and have them as employees request enterprises to make their lives easy by using the same products they use outside the office.
Apple is slowly moving into enterprise. I do agree with competition heating up on the consumer side, they need to move faster in making their products more enterprise friendly.
As more and more corporates migrate services to the cloud, in a real and metaphorical sense, the distinction between relying on Windows or OS X to access corporate resources will blur over time. A new generation of knowledge workers are entering and have entered the workspace who demand nothing but the best and will not accept the dross dished out by Microsoft.
Microsoft’s main advantage is the entrenched learning process that originated from previous generations of workers trained on and familiar with Windows but that is gradually changing. There are less and less numbers of people who aren’t trained on OS X or its adjunct iOS and are by definition comfortable with starting out on Mac OS X or switching over to Mac OS X once they see the light.
Companies are increasingly operated less on the dictates of the IT department and more on recruiting knowledge workers who can contribute to the bottom line irrespective of the tools. Most people, given the choice, will choose the best tool for the job, which is Mac OS X. Windows’ dominance is declining, not only in the personal space but in most corporate environments.
With the decline of the dominance of desktops and the rise of laptops and mobile computing, Microsoft’s relevance to computing will fade away over time.
He is also taking about M$ Office. If M$ can offer a tablet that totally integrates with M$ Office, they will have a selling advantage in enterprise.
Apple needs to up the appearance of iWork to Mae it more appear to be like M$ Office.
Yep. Very few people understand that Microsoft Office is the center of MS’s universe and most enterprise environments.
Its a lego set for building business process, analyzing data and running a company.
If MS releases a decent ‘surface’ and ties it to office in a way that works well then they will have an IT advantage.
time is too soon to tell though… MS can’t even get a surface in someone’s hands let alone produce one ready for the enterprise! lol
What Apple needs to do is keep making reliable and long-lasting products at a reasonable price.
The hell with Micro$oft.
Slow news day I guess.
I’m still waiting for Sony, or Disney, to buy Apple. “They” promised it would happen… every year in the 80s, and the 90s.
Honestly, how many times can they claim the sky is falling before they simply tire of it?
Now it’s the other way around. Apple could buy both of them and still pay a dividend.
Speaking of drunk, who is the clown who wrote this article? I’m sure his mother loves him, but WTF?!
He’s either deliberately ignorant OR it’s The August Effect, which of course infers being deliberately ignorant.
This is total rubbish:
Apple’s enterprise philosophy seems to consist of one sentence, ‘I’ll sell you anything you want as long as it’s for the consumer.’
Lazy lazy lazy Mark Fidelman of Forbes!
The REAL story is long, painful and frustrating. Apple has had repeated waves of intense efforts toward enterprise business. But they never pay off because enterprise:
1) Has its head up its rectum at the best of times.
2) Knows that crucial developers either refuse, or hardly care, to write Mac friendly versions of their applications.
3) Recognizes that Microsoft has a blackmail / retaliation stranglehold on the enterprise market, despite inferior products as a rule.
4) Believes open source anything is scary and and Mac OS X is mainly open source.
5) Figures that if its from Apple, it doesn’t understand the enterprise. Sometimes this is indeed the case. But when Apple gets it perfectly right, the enterprise still ignores them.
One wonderful set of examples of Apple getting it right but being ignored:
• Mac OS X Server
• Apple’s Xserve
• Apple’s Xserve RAID
• Xgrid
Thankfully both OS X Server and Xgrid survive. Xserve hardware, however, didn’t make enough profit for Apple to bother, sad to say.
And YES, Xgrid lives on in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, despite TechTard rants to the contrary. Please read THIS:
OS X Mountain Lion: Set up your Mac as an Xgrid agent
I have no idea where you work but I know of no company that is afraid of Open Source. All of them I’ve worked have embraced it the hell out of it!
Open Source is building a new enterprise server environment at most companies.
I’ve never heard ‘open source’ and ‘apple’ used in the same sentence in an IT meeting. Apple is considered the most closed of any technology from what I’ve witnessed.
They may recognize that apple uses some open source technologies but I’ve never seen that come up since you can’t exactly take OS X and make changes to it. who would use Darwin in an enterprise environment? No one since any linux distro is far more complete than the open source portion of OS X.
Ah, I haven’t yet gotten to reply to anonymous coward ‘really’ as of yet. But I know your reputation.
1) I have no idea what planet you live on, but I know very few enterprise businesses using Linux or BSD, those open source OSes.
2) Enterprise damned well IS scared of Open Source, specifically because it thinks that having the code out there in public for what they are running means the spooking hacker gremlins are going to break in and steal their stuff. THUS the MASSIVE use of Microsoft Server in the enterprise. Large DUH Factor.
3) IT meetings feature IT doofuses who are too lazy, much like you, to know that the FOUNDATION of OS X is open source software.
– (a) Darwin OS.
– (b) Mach kernel, now called XNU.
– (c) Apache Server, built into every copy of OS X.
– (d) X11, aka XWindows.
– blahblahblah. Apple is involved with over 300 open source projects, many of which it created, many of which it funds. Now go count how many open source projects MS gives a rat’s about. So much for Windows being ‘open’. 🙄
(And now for a pause to point out what a lazy dumdum you are, anonymous coward ‘really’)
since you can’t exactly take OS X and make changes to it.
Oh really? Then why do I do that every day? Hmm? You no know how to use Terminal? You no play with MacPorts? XQuartz too geeky for you? REALLY?! Poor widdle newbie!
who would use Darwin in an enterprise environment?
Proving my point that IT consider open source to be all ScARy! Lazy lazy lazy.
Why do you bother to come to MDN if you don’t bother to know what you’re talking about? REALLY! ;?
Dude you aren’t working in the enterprise if you have never seen Linux or BSD being used. Your uncle’s real estate office with 5 employees is not the enterprise my friend.
How many firewall systems, intrusion detection systems and other security systems in an enterprise are based on Linux or BSD? The answer is damn near all of them.
NAS
Of course, par for the course, you didn’t read what I wrote. DUH, as I wrote, I’ve seen Linux and BSD in the enterprise. Go back, read it again, turn all RED and apologize. You really are an incredible waste of time. Just for fun, I’m not going to bother reading the rest of what you wrote. Feel good? Of course not.
now that is a bitch slap!
So let me get this straight, a guy (YOU) who claims to be into security of all things is trying to tell me he has never seen Linux or BSD in the enterprise?
That is just the tip of the iceberg where BSD and Linux are deployed in the enterprise and its supposedly your strong point! WTF? lol.
The rest of your post is rubbish. I’m not talking about using the terminal to make ‘changes’ to OS X. I’m talking about using it as the basis for a large scale enterprise deployment or server platform. It rarely if ever happens and its not because IT is afraid of open source.
You’ve never been in a data center if you have not seen Linux and BSD in the enterprise.
I don’t think you work in the enterprise honestly. I think you work in the small to medium business sector if you work at all.
Very good points. The fact that the iPhone played with Exchange fairly early in its incarnations also underscores Apple’s willingness to be enterprised. Or at least to get one foot in that door.
Bullsh*t.
This should be a, “Think before you click” link.
Apple does have some part of the enterprise sector but the developers an d Apple should expand it more. I think the iPhone is entrenched in the medical sector. I am a heart transplant recipient and I go to a lot of doctors. Every one I go to has an iPhome with the full compliment of medical apps. One hospital I go to I would say 90% or more of the staff use iPhones. Also in Lowes all the employees use a altered iPhone or iPod touch to keep track of items in the store. So they do have a pretty good foothold in these areas and may be others but the do need to go into the office invironment.
One enormous problem is the lack of accepted enterprise software for OS X.
My MD’s office is still dependent upon DOS databases for patient information, as are vast numbers of hospital systems. They are nearly as antiquated as the computers used by the US federal government. No wonder they’re always complaining at me about the crap nature of the software they’re stuck using.
Oracle? Good luck getting them to port all their software to OS X, despite the so-called friendship between Jobs and Ellison. This one simple fact keeps OS X from entering the door of hundreds of companies.
One word for Microsoft: Kodak.
Not Kodak, IBM. They’ll be around, but not relevant; a shell of their former selves.
I LOVE articles like this,
this is what iCal was made for!
MDN is right, the days of companies making cheep, buggy, poorly designed, and overpriced junk and then slapping the word “Enterprise” on it are O-V-E-R-!!!
I had to live (work) through the enterprise 80’s and 90’s, never again!!!
Article and many of the comments so miss the point. Apple’s enterprise strategy is convergence of mobile and computers. MacBook Pro, MacBook air, iPads, iPhones are all computers with increasing ability to work on same projects. iOS Apps are customizable for any enterprise work. iOS programmers are increasing in enterprise and becoming the the new IT. In house iOS programming is easy, relatively inexpensive and shifts from programs businesses need to fit into to programs customized for specific business. This is the revolution occurring under the line of visibility. It is the small set of customized apps that fit a specific need that are affordable, employ iOS developers, are scalable and make parts of businesses run and fit together better. It is the new economy, the next big thing and an amazing time to be an iOS developer.
I’d like to see Apple make more enterprise friendly hardware again – rack-mount servers, blade servers specifically. Their XServe line didn’t make a loss, it just didn’t make enough profit. If Apple TV is a ‘hobby’ worth keeping alive, then surely professional back-room hardware is.
A few thoughts.
I thought the article was going to be a tongue in cheek article about Apple and Microsoft switching roles and outcomes. I was surprised that the author really means what the article says.
We are in the post PC world.
Desktop sales are declining and desktops are on the way out.
Laptops will be around a little longer and then be gone!
All replaced by iPads in various sizes and configurations with computing power to do what desktops and laptops have done!
Ios devices are in the vast majority of fFortune 500 companies or are being tested by them.
IPads are being used in commercial jets to replace the papre binders that pilots use.
Ford has introduced iPads to sales personnel.
IPads are in schools from kindergarten to college. These are where our future executives and workers will be coming from. it’s a new day.
If you believe the author of the article, load up on microsoft stock.
If you think otherwise may I suggest AAPL!