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Apple to launch $500 Joint Venture small business support plan

During a series of store-wide meetings on Sunday, Apple prepped its retail employees for a March 2 launch of Joint Venture, a new technical support plan targeted at small businesses, AppleInsider has learned.

Last week, AppleInsider exclusively reported that Apple had scheduled a secretive meeting Sunday for retail employees. Details emerged later that week, revealing that the meeting was called to prepare employees for the imminent announcement of a new enterprise service plan, dubbed Joint Venture.

According to people in attendance, the meeting's agenda on Sunday did indeed involve an internal unveiling of the new Joint Venture priority service plan. Sources have told AppleInsider that the plan will cost around $500 a year and will be made available to businesses when purchasing a new Mac. Up to 5 systems will be covered by the plan, though additional systems may be added for $99 a year.

The tagline for the service will reportedly be: "Get Setup. Get Trained. Keep Running." One key selling point of Joint Venture will be the option to have Apple Genius technicians install and configure Microsoft Exchange during setup.

Customers enrolled in the plan will receive priority service at the Genius Bar and gain access to an exclusive Apple Genius-manned technical support number at the corporate office. Similar to Apple's ProCare service plan, customers will be first in line for repairs.

During repairs that take longer than 24 hours to complete, customers may be eligible to borrow 15-inch MacBook Pros with iWork and Microsoft Office preinstalled.

Joint Venture will also provide customers with personal setup data transfer, limited group training sessions (up to 3 sessions per year, for up to 8 people at a time) and access to a website to schedule phone support appointments with Apple Genius technicians, according to one person familiar with the matter. Apple will reportedly continue to offer its AppleCare and One to One plans alongside Joint Venture.

The Cupertino, Calif., Mac maker intends to launch the new service on March 2 in the U.S. and March 3 in the U.K., sources said. Given that Apple has sent out invitations to a media event to release the second-generation iPad, the company could likely announce the new service plan during the event.

Apple has already begun prepping for Wednesday's event, which will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Photos surfaced last week of promotional signage outside the venue featuring a large Apple logo surrounded by numerous colored dots.

As reported last week, a new enterprise-focused support service from Apple could end up competing with members of the Apple Consultants Network. Certified Apple consultants are reportedly upset over recent changes to Apple retail policy that require technical support referrals from retail stores to go through third-party provider OnForce. It has been suggested that Apple made these changes in preparation for the launch of Joint Venture.



37 Comments

logisticaldron 16 Years · 833 comments

No matter how much Apple focuses on business, no matter many businesses adopt Apple’s products some around here will continually call their products nothing more than toys. They could even IBM’s CEO saying the iPad isn’t a toy while La Roux signs “I’m not your toy” and those people would still say it’s nothing more than a toy.

canucklehead 19 Years · 403 comments

No matter how much Microsoft focuses on promoting Windows as a stable OS, no matter how many users continue to think of it as an adequate facsimile of OSX, some around here will continue to think of it as bloated, buggy, uninspired, and unoriginal, using it only because work forces them to. They could even have Apple advocates saying it isn't total crap but some people will still say it's nothing more than a Mac wannabe.

There are two sides to a coin. If there's demand for this service, then it'll be a success.

You shouldn't bet against Apple but if you insist... Heads I win, tails you lose.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Logisticaldron

No matter how much Apple focuses on business, no matter many businesses adopt Apple’s products some around here will continually call their products nothing more than toys. They could even IBM’s CEO saying the iPad isn’t a toy while La Roux signs “I’m not your toy” and those people would still say it’s nothing more than a toy.

wizard69 22 Years · 13358 comments

What would really bring in small businesses is E-Mail. That is Apple needs a dot Mac service more oriented towards business users. For businesses greater than one or two Apple should provide business accounts much like Google does, that is goofy@mybusiness.com addresses. Many small businesses would rather have a local contact to handle this for them. This would keep everything on the Apple infrastructure which is very suitable for business. The new data center could easily handle this.

I know this may sound silly to some but E-Mail is a big deal for a modern business but it also can be a big distraction. In any event I'm not sure the current leaked info is enough to bring in small business, especially at the listed price. Of course there is likely plenty that hasn't been leaked yet so that is another consideration. At the moment though it doesn't look all that compelling, guess we find out for sure on the 2nd.

pembroke 17 Years · 228 comments

"Come and see what 2011 will be the year of"

Groan. So sad to see yet another example of dreadful English grammar exhibited by Apple marketing. Is it part of their mission statement to trash the language? Perhaps they're doing it just to get attention? I wonder how many people are refusing to buy Apple products because of the way Apple are so disrespectful to the language? Probably very, very few. ;-)

I wonder whether the grammar of Apple advertising is just as dire in the other languages in which they advertise?

rabbit_coach 15 Years · 1114 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by pembroke

"Come and see what 2011 will be the year of"

Groan. So sad to see yet another example of dreadful English grammar exhibited by Apple marketing. Is it part of their mission statement to trash the language? Perhaps they're doing it just to get attention? I wonder how many people are refusing to buy Apple products because of the way Apple are so disrespectful to the language? Probably very, very few. ;-)

I wonder whether the grammar of Apple advertising is just as dire in the other languages in which they advertise?

What has this to do with anything?