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Psst.. Apple Just got REAL with the Enterprise (1 Viewer)

mattCR

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I just had an hour meeting with Apple, a nice talk about why they were happy that we had replaced our BES in our environment and moved to all iPhones. Since we deploy more then 150 iX devices (phones and Pads) they wanted to talk to us about "what's next" for Apple's corporate supports.. and let me tell you, it's the first meeting I've ever had with Apple where I thought: Ka-Boom.

Apple rolled out there: this is how we're going to change the way you think about this. Phrases I didn't expect to hear:
(1) We have a tighter relationship with Microsoft then Blackberry, and definitely Google.. we will are committed to being the premier exchange mobile client.
(2) We recognize that iTunes may not work for your business.. so guess what, we're introducing Configurator:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57394116-263/apple-configurator-offers-easy-ios-deployment-from-os-x/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-configurator/id434433123?mt=12

(3) And we've got more versions of it coming to mobile deploy and wipe out iTunes from your devices so your users don't have it.. so how will that work? Oh, let's talk to you about VPP:
http://images.apple.com/business/docs/VPP_Business_Guide_US.pdf

Apple's corporate buy program with redeemable code on the phones, so while they don't have the store or iTunes, you can push content to them..

(4) a New revamped iPhone enterprise portal: http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/enterprise/

(5) Can't talk about this, NDA.. but DAMN

(6) "No corporation will have any reason, period, to chose Blackberry over an iDevice. None."


It was one of the most business-centric meetings I have ever had with Apple. Last year when we met with Apple, the tone was significantly different "you'll work our way". This year it was much more "we've heard what you're saying, and we're more committed to working with you.."

The biggest shift in tone I have ever heard from a company that I can remember; a basic "mea culpa" from a market leader. I know that sounds ridiculous, but Apple basically said: "we're going to eat crow, we were wrong, but guess what, we're going to spin around and be better about where we were wrong in the past then any of our competitors ever were."

Just... Damn.
 

dmiller68

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Our company is in the process of dumping Blackberry for iPhones or Android. Not sure how Blackberry is going to survive for the long term.
 

mattCR

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Immediately, find someone at Apple and tell them that.. I am dead serious.. if you're moving more then 100 devices, they are going to really go overboard in the kind of help they will give you. Pretty awesome. The moment I told them we had 150+ i devices, they started laying it on us hardcore of the kind of support they were willing to give us.. and they mentioned several times "have you already dropped BES? let's talk to you about how you can do that.."

Apple has absolutely put the big red bullseye on taking RIM out of the equation
 

mattCR

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Oh and when they talk to you about #5... SOB. I know that's going to leak on one of these Mac sites soon enough, but total game changer for a lot of companies who use their devices.
 

Ted Todorov

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Quote:

Originally Posted by dmiller68 /t/319151/psst-apple-just-got-real-with-the-enterprise#post_3905132
Our company is in the process of dumping Blackberry for iPhones or Android. Not sure how Blackberry is going to survive for the long term.
Spoiler: They won't survive.

As to Apple's change in corporate attitude -- color me not surprised. Tim Cook is ex-Compaq. Apple starting to throw bones at the corporate market is going to be the biggest post Steve Jobs change.
 

Sam Posten

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Glad to see it. Expect them to really start wooing developers more too, and answering the mail on legitimate complaints.
I keep telling people that this is how they work, they are dummies and arent blind to their faults like other companies are. It's how they manage expectations and build like a snowball.
They did it with consumers on computers.
They did it with consumers on mobile phones
" on ipads
" on pro apps (look at the turnaround on FCPX)
" businesses on enterprise mail
" on fleet building
Next it will be addressing the advantages that pirates and jailbreakers have
Then it will be virtualization
Gaming will continue to grow
Then the living room
Rinse repeat.
Ain't seen nothing yet, but you can't limit yourself and especially not your expectations by the failures of today.
And nobody else works like this. Not even MS. Certainly not Google, Amazon or god forbid HP/Yahoo.
Start small, make mistakes, fix them, build build build excite excit excite.
 

DaveF

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I don't deal with sales, so what do I know...but it's surprising to me that the largest (market) company in the country, that sells tens of millions of devices a quarter to consumers, cares to give the time of day to a 100-unit deployment shop. What's that, a $50k account, maybe yearly? Don't they make that daily at Apple stores? And they burned half their profits on that sales-pitch meeting.

That's really something, or so it seems to me.
 

mattCR

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Originally Posted by DaveF /t/319151/psst-apple-just-got-real-with-the-enterprise#post_3905468
I don't deal with sales, so what do I know...but it's surprising to me that the largest (market) company in the country, that sells tens of millions of devices a quarter to consumers, cares to give the time of day to a 100-unit deployment shop. What's that, a $50k account, maybe yearly? Don't they make that daily at Apple stores? And they burned half their profits on that sales-pitch meeting.

That's really something, or so it seems to me.
Yeah, this doesn't at all work the way that you think it works. You can say "well, that's what, $100k a year in hardware sales? Doesn't a store do that?" Yes... and no, not to a single customer; but more importantly, things like VPP mean significant continual income to apple on a regular basis.. it also means influence to put the hammer down against competitors.

Why would apple have the meeting? This is where their attitude was a year ago.. "so what, you spend $100k with us a year.. BFD.." And sure, lots of consumers keep them pumping. But having businesses in single accounts strongly committed has a huge impact on the market.. ask Microsoft, who despite all the hand wringing in the market pretty much wiped out everyone in the enterprise email market with Exchange by going to people spending $50k and up and saying "we're going to show you how to wipe out Novel/Domino/Notes" If they lose half their profits having an Apple rep spend one hour in a talk with us.. yeah, then they are making way less money then anyone believes.. And their pitch of VPP/etc. is the key to getting businesses to spend very large chunks of budget on controlling iTunes expenditures.. the afterwork that makes them money :)
 

DaveF

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Originally Posted by mattCR /t/319151/psst-apple-just-got-real-with-the-enterprise#post_3905484
Yeah, this doesn't at all work the way that you think it works. You can say "well, that's what, $100k a year in hardware sales? Doesn't a store do that?" Yes... and no, not to a single customer; but more importantly, things like VPP mean significant continual income to apple on a regular basis.. it also means influence to put the hammer down against competitors.
Fair enough :)



It's also curious, since there's been reports that Apple has no interest in bending to DOD requests for OS changes, as a 25,000 (?) deployment is puny compared to their consumer sales and not worth kowtowing for. Perhaps that's changing...







I had an energetic conversation with a friend about this topic last year. His prediction: Apple would start bending to the will of corporate users, adding business cruft and sacrificing consumer friendliness, following the footsteps of Microsoft. So does anything in this briefing suggest harming the consumer iOS experience?
 

RobertR

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It doesn't seem to be coincidence that this change in attitude follows the death of Steve Jobs.
 

mattCR

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Originally Posted by DaveF /t/319151/psst-apple-just-got-real-with-the-enterprise#post_3905535

I had an energetic conversation with a friend about this topic last year. His prediction: Apple would start bending to the will of corporate users, adding business cruft and sacrificing consumer friendliness, following the footsteps of Microsoft. So does anything in this briefing suggest harming the consumer iOS experience?
No. It shouldn't iimpact consumers at all. It comes as it is, they will just give people like us a tool to do things like: wipe iTunes off the phone so end users can't connect or install their own apps; And a few other things. But it's big steps that just allow businesses to take a consumer device and make it more enterprise friendly.
 

Michael_K_Sr

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To me, that web page does nothing more than show a bunch of third party apps. If that's the best they can do for the enterprise market then it's a huge disappointment.
 

Steve_Tk

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My company, which has around 40,000 employees, started offering iPhones last year. They still offer the blackberry, but everyone is switching.
 

DaveF

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How many people have a company issued phone?My industry doesn't use much mobile tech, so I have trouble grasping the importance and use of these business initiatives by Apple and others.
 

Steve_Tk

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In my division of the company, most of us have a phone. A good phone has replaced the need to ever turn on the laptop while traveling.
 

Steve_Tk

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They are also issuing some iPads now too, and we can all get our company email on our personally owned iPads.
 

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