MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Apr 18, 08 - 08:49 am Comment from: shen

"Why hasn't this been the front page news of every tech column (especially when OS X's nearly insignificant consumer market gains were heavily reported)?""

those nearly insignificant gains are actually rather nice, AND come at a time other computer companies are seeing slow downs.

while it is nice he sees the business adoption, it is a shame he doesn't get the whole picture.....

Apr 18, 08 - 08:54 am Comment from: Cubert

"There's the perception that Macs aren't compatible and that they're hard to manage—Maclore."

Would that be Troy Maclore?

In my small software development business, we run 7-MacBook Pros, 2-Windows XP Desktops, 4-Mac Pros, 2-Apple Xserves, and 5-Linux Servers. And, as a bonus, I don't have a dedicated IT person.

That means I'm 65% Mac.

I love my world...

Oooooo hard numbers, well that keeps the microsoftie boy crying Lemmings out of the picture.

Apr 18, 08 - 09:11 am Comment from: Zune Tang®

Move along. Nothing to see here.

Your potential. Our passion.™

Apr 18, 08 - 09:13 am Comment from: eMax

Patients my young padawan....patients....

Apr 18, 08 - 09:18 am Comment from: Randian

eMax,

"Patience"?

From Doctor OB-G Wan

Apr 18, 08 - 09:29 am Comment from: ElderNorm

Most people just do not get it. They use numbers and big is the only thing that they look at.

Apple has no desire to try and sell to companies where the only thing a purchasing agent sees is dollars on a PO. HP and Dell compete on selling crap. They lose money and have to make it up on higher level systems. Apple does not. Apple is (as Steve Jobs once said) NOT in the market to sell crap.

en

Apr 18, 08 - 09:30 am Comment from: Buster

I wanted to become a doctor but I didn't have the patience.

Apr 18, 08 - 09:31 am Comment from: Buster

Hey it is friday....let's all leave our business Mac computers and skip out early and go for a beer!

With all the time, money, and effort that the enterprise spends on anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc. You would think that switching would be a no brainer.

Our work PCs are so bogged down with security that I leave it on over night because we do not want to wait 2 to 3 minutes for it to boot up in the morning. Leave it to the bean counters not to figure that one out.

Apr 18, 08 - 09:54 am Comment from: qka

"business industry"

WTF? Can't these idiots use English?

What, pray tell, is so lackluster about Apple's "consumer OS efforts"?

The artical id right though. Apple doesn't market to business (except creatives). And I agree the seeds of change are in iPhone firmware 2. What' s the point in trying to challenge Windows' stranglehold on commercial PCs? RIM and WM are far softer targets to go for. And if Apple can establish dominance there, and keep thinking of iPhone as a 'platform'. They might catch the same sort of wave that M$ caught when the PC platform took over from mainframes in business.

Apr 18, 08 - 10:13 am Comment from: TowerTone

OS X tripled?
So now it's OS XXX?

No Buster, you didn't have the brains or the talent.

Mama lied to you. Again.

Apr 18, 08 - 10:26 am Comment from: Jubei

Great job Apple. Gaining triple numbers is monumental when pitted against a MONOPOLY. This news should not be taken lightly. Also all these journalist should also point out that Apple made these huge gains despite MS MONOPOLY that continues to be allowed by the government.

ChrissyOne,

good comments on the iTunes tax story....

Apr 18, 08 - 10:42 am Comment from: Cubert

@Buster,
I have always told my residents, "He who has no patience has no patients."

@TT,
Only if the OS was written by me.

When you try to be great at everything, you become good for nothing. Right now Apple is focused on the consumer market. And they are doing a brilliant job in capturing that market. Just running a bunch of ads for business might actually muddy people's image of Apple and be counter-productive.

I agree with Joe Wilcox that the iPhone is the Trojan horse that will bring the Mac to Enterprise. 1) iPHone gets Enterprise. 2) iPhone gets killer applications. 3) iPhone applications get ported to the Mac (rather than the norm where applications are ported from the computer to the mobile device). 4) Businesses that are exposed to the iPhone and like what they see start clamoring for Mac support.

We'll see...

Apr 18, 08 - 11:07 am Comment from: Olmecmystic

What'll be REALLY interesting is perusing those same chart numbers a year from now.

Macheads know what's coming but the great unwashed masses have no idea what's about to hit 'em.

Peace.
Olmecmystic

Best of luck, Cubert. Congratulations.

@ Jubei

That is an excellent point. Only yesterday Red Hat was announcing that it was stepping back from its Consumer Desktop Linux efforts, citing (among other factors) the difficulties of competing in a desktop environment which "suffers from having one dominant vendor".

A *free* desktop OS is struggling to compete against Windows - that's how much of an uphill climb it really is against Microsoft.

And yet Apple is succeeding in this exact same environment. This is indeed news which should not be taken lightly.

Apr 18, 08 - 12:12 pm Comment from: KingMel

In the past, the opposite effect was true and the business use of PCs had a strong effect on consumer choice. Since Intel Macs can natively run Windows the tables have turned somewhat and the consumer market can drive the business market a bit.

The iPod was/is Apple's foot in the door for the consumer Mac market.

The iPhone is serving the same function for the business market, and that impact will radically increase once new iPhone apps start rolling out based on the June SDK release.

Apr 18, 08 - 01:37 pm Comment from: LinuxGuyAndMacProdigalSon

Apple is wisely allowing the reality of the Vista disaster to destroy Microsoft's reputation. Never get in the way of an enemy that is destroying itself. If Apple were to jump into the argument, it would only give Microsoft's supporters a way to change the focus away from Vista and towards the flaws they claim for Apple. Apple is too smart to be suckered into that choice.

Apr 18, 08 - 02:01 pm Comment from: Zune Tang®

@LinuxGuyAndMacProdigalSon

Vista disaster? Destroying Microsoft's reputation?

I never thought MAC lemmings could be so delusional until I read your post. First of all Vista is a stunning technical achievement and commercial success, and second Microsoft's reputation couldn't be better. Perhaps Apple knows when they're beat (again) and is wisely keeping their trap shut because Vista can clean MAC's clock any day of the week. I'll bet my Zune points on it.

Your potential. Our passion.™

Apr 18, 08 - 02:44 pm Comment from: Micro Me

Advertising to the business sector might help, but there's another step Apple could take to help those of us trying to convince intransigent IT depts that Macs "fit": -Improve Exchange support in Mail.

At the moment, to get decent Exchange connection, users are forced to use Entourage. If you decide on Entourage from Office 08, you'll pay a US$250 premium over the home and student edition.

If full, or at least comprehensive, Exchange support was included in Mail, and I could show my IT dept that it was free with every Mac OS X installation, I think it would help shift their mindset, at least a teensy bit.

How exactly do you advertise for the business sector? Advertise on CNBC? Fox Business? Bloomberg?

I see Apple ads in business oriented magazines, isn't that the usual way to advertise to business?

Apple have no credibility in the business market because they have no infrastructure to provide an acceptable level of support to business. And their products are unsuitable in many cases.

Take Pages, for instance. Nice and clean to use, but no security (no password protection on documents) and no way that I can find to change the language from US English. So much if you are in UK, SA, NZ, Aus or anywhere else where colour still has a "u" and aluminium has all its letters...

Or take servers - there is but one, and it is a rackmount server. Which is a nuisance if you are a smallish business and dont have room for a rack or cant justify the expense. It is expensive too - especially when you start adding external drives beyond the 3 which are supported in the 1U server.

Have a problem with OS X Server outside US business hours? If you are lucky you might get to speak to the only server-trained individual on duty after hours - I did, and he didn't know anything beyond how to drive the GUI. Which is not much chop when the GUI screws up the underlying parameter files.

Apple hos chosen to focus in consumerland, where it is doing extremely well. Perhaps Apple will make some headway in business - but they have a long way to go before they will be taken seriously in larger commercial enterprises.

Apr 19, 08 - 02:11 am Comment from: Jubei

@byronic

Weak argument there. Your points of software and hardware and support is not an issue. All these things are easily doable by Apple.

The real reason Apple is fighting hard for consumers is that the monopoly cannot extend in that front. IT cannot control the individual user at home. IT cannot control families making choices. If a company wants you to work at home, they'll provide the MS monopolized equipment. So its smart for Apple to tackle the home front first and foremost.

Apple can't gain anything in the business world monopolized by MS, so why waste all those resources. Apple may win a few battles, but they will lose in a war. Thats because the cards are stacked against them or anyone for that matter trying to get a foot in against MS.

byronic: Or take servers - there is but one, and it is a rackmount server. Which is a nuisance if you are a smallish business and dont have room for a rack or cant justify the expense. It is expensive too - especially when you start adding external drives beyond the 3 which are supported in the 1U server.

Very simple: If you don't have an existing rack infrastructure (and no need for one otherwise), the Mac Pro is your server of choice. Much more silent, much more "office friendly" and actually more flexible and cheaper. The Xserve is just not the machine for you.