The Mac Observer notes that Al Shipp, who's run the company's business sales division since 2004, will see his supporting cast rolled into the company's broader sales team for the Americas and Asia Pacific, which has been under the control of vice president John Brandon for the past 7 years.
Among the team members making the jump are Stuart Maclennan, a Director responsible for non-governmental territory sales; David Puklin, a Director responsible for named accounts; and Ron Police, the Vice President of Federal and Government Sales.
At face value, the move would suggest Apple is surrendering a large portion of its efforts to infiltrate businesses. The change, however, is more likely a shift in strategy as the Cupertino-based company prepares to close in on the market.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week, Apple boldly noted a change in strategy for its 2009 fiscal year, by which it plans to target consumers in addition to " small and mid-sized business (âSMBâ), education, enterprise, government," as well as its trademark audience of creative professionals.
Last year's filing covering the 2008 fiscal year stated the company would focus on its "digital lifestyle" products for consumers and the company's stronghold markets in education and creativity, relegating all other business into a single sentence.
In a followup article on TMO, Apple fellow John Martellaro therefor suggests the company's move to do away with a dedicated enterprise sales lead more likely marks a return to chief executive Steve Jobs' grassroots strategy of having Macs sell themselves.
"What's ultimately the key here is that Steve Jobs believes that people should want to buy a great computer," he wrote. "Selling them is [a] great idea, if the customer is willing to believe that buying the best product is the right thing to do. But cleverly and deceptively maneuvering a customer into a sale, when they're playing you against the competition, is not Mr. Jobs' religion."
Apple is also likely looking to encroach on the enterprise market on its own terms, he adds, not through the demands of big businesses who may ask the company to cripple its products for security reasons, or for it to extend the production of a specific model well past its intended life-cycle.
So far, the company's approach appears to working. A report published by Forrester Research this August noted that Mac deployment in the enterprise has climbed from 1.1 percent in October 2006 to 4.5 percent in June of 2008. While that's much lower than Apple's nearly 20 percent share of the US consumer PC retail market or its 8 percent share of the entire US PC and server market, it's significantly higher than the company's 3.5 percent share of all PCs and servers sold worldwide.
In the report, analyst Benjamin Gray stated that Mac adoption is being pushed upward by consumer demand, not special concessions on the part of the Mac maker.
"Strong iPod branding and sales have led to greater consumer sales of Apple PCs," he wrote. "In turn, this has lured enthusiasts and small workgroups with supple IT departments beyond the standard domain of design and media."
16 Comments
The xServe is slow to be updated. There still are no xBlades and Apple's storage solution was axed. Apple's entry into Enterprise seems weak at this point. Snow Leopard might give more of an indication where they are going on the server software side. We'll see in 8 months.
So far, the company's approach appears to working.
It's working only because Microsoft is faltering, not due in any part whatsoever to what Apple is doing. I've had to fight tooth & nail to get & keep Macs in Enterprise all along, and it's no easier now than it was five years ago. The OS still isn't fully Enterprise compliant (no DFS support in Leopard, for example) and I hear from my Enterprise sales rep. maybe about once per quarter. When we find deficiencies in Leopard that prevent rollout of the new hardware we bought, we have to pay for an Enterprise support agreement with Apple to get assistance. That's a helluva thing after paying hundreds of thousands for new hardware. They even charge you one of your 10 Enterprise support incidents when you find a bug in Leopard; essentially it costs $500-worth of support to be told "Oh yeah, that's broken. We'll fix it in the next Leopard update." This is NOT how you keep Enterprise customers, Apple.
What a fucking Moron. He's little Steve Joblet trying to perfect his RDF.
Apple is not an Enterprise Company. Jobs' has stated this over and over. People just need to let the dream die. In order to play in the Enterprise space you need to push the envelope. Apple couldn't even keep their branded RAID system alive.
Apple has a better OS for consumers but their hardware is decidedly pedestrian IMO.
This is going to be tough if they continue with the current desktop product matrix.
Mini languishing without updates is a capable lower end machine that would work in many applications.
iMac is an AIO with much built in resistance from IT.
PowerMac is way over kill for most business computers.
I think their statement concerning small and mid-sized business is a real afterthought to give the appearance they really do care.
Enterprise will take a major overhaul of how they handle business and I doubt they can make any real headway for the foreseeable future. Maybe they can buddy up with IBM somehow, but I believe there would be major culture clashes.
Many folks think that Apple in the Enterprise means "servers". The real money in the Enterprise is notebooks be it leased, purchased, and the support that goes with them. Where I work (Very large tech company), IT just sent out an email stating that Apple Macintosh computers will be available via the IT refresh program. People who think Apple is not interested in the Enterprise have never received Apple's mailer "Apple in the Enterprise" or spoken to one of Apple's dedicated corporate buyer agents. They are always very eager to know what they can do to assist the customer and of course grow their presence in the Enterprise.