“It is easy to look at Tuesday’s event from a hardware only viewpoint and miss the significance. However, if you view Tuesday’s event through the lens of personal computing more clarity emerges,” Ben Bajarin writes for Tech.pinions. “Hardware is the beautifully designed tangible object. But it is the software that turns that beautifully designed tangible object into an empowering tool called a personal computer.”
“Apple is a hardware company that is true. They are also a software company. However, they don’t want to just sell you hardware or software. They want to sell you an experience. That experience is fueled by their ecosystem,” Bajarin writes. “Consistency in OS updates, app updates, and more is now free. Not to mention best in class customer support. This can not be overlooked or underestimated. This is the vertical advantage.”
Bajarin writes, “An investment in Apple’s hardware is an investment in future software upgrades at no additional cost. The value of the software is now built into the value of the hardware. Apple is telling customers that they are committed to bringing them quality software as a service to their quality hardware. This is Apple’s vision for personal computing.”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
IMHO this was always the Jobs/Apple vision. There are products all along Apple’s history to show this. If one looks at Jobs/Apples history through the lens of the present one can see all sorts of clues that we are seeing what Jobs saw way back when.
I think Apple intends to squeeze Microsoft into being only a “big enterprise” software/hardware company. This leaves all small- and medium-businesses and consumers to Apple. Microsoft, of course, is clueless to this as usual.
I cannot agree. Most small businesses are capital-limited, which means IT needs to be cost-effective. It Apple wanted to capture that market, it would have to offer comprehensive marketing to show why Macs can be the better value for small businesses. Overwhelmingly, Apple has avoided doing this. So however “clueless” MS may be, they still dominate all enterprise computing, small and large.
Apple has no one to blame for this but themselves. I’ve been calling Apple to step up with competitive offerings for business customers for years, and Apple seems tone deaf to the opportunity.
Like what?
Like what? Like hardware and software that would replace what you see in >85% of businesses around the world at competitive lifetime prices, with the after-sales support that these businesses need.
Mike,
“I cannot agree. Most small businesses are capital-limited, which means IT needs to be cost-effective. It Apple wanted to capture that market, it would have to offer comprehensive marketing to show why Macs can be the better value for small businesses”
If a business is really capital careful they will buy Mac. The systems last longer work better and are easier to do IT on.
Look at the incorporation of iPads in small business!!!!
The proble is that you are still thinking like Microsoft thinks. Years late and sc**w the customer.
Just a thought
Well, then why can’t Apple seem to break a ~ 10% market share in business, Eldernorm? Because all these businesses all these years have been entirely clueless? Sure, that explains everything.
Small business is smart enough to investigate Apple’s ‘value prosition’ without Apple wasting money on advertising; if an IT guy needs to be marketed to, he’s not doing his job and he’s not worth the marketing dollars it would take to convince.
People (Analysts, Trolls, Fanbois) don’t get the new Apple. Take iWorks: the new iWorks is more than enough for my parents, or my aunt & uncle. However the same cannot be said for my brother (running his own business) or me (Scientist). I replaced PowerPoint with Keynote years ago and was hoping to replace Word and Excel with Pages and Numbers when the new update will “finally” arrive.
Well, it did arrive and it shows Apple’s new strategy: give the largest number of users a consistent experience across all devices, be it iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Web. While this strategy is immensely successful and profitable, it is also the technological equivalent of the “For Dummys” books. And that is simply not good enough for many of us.
I’ll still use Keynote 09, and maybe Apple will get a Keynote Pro out of the door, but I am not hopeful – it’s been too long.