Apple's Biz Cred Is Crud
News Analysis. When analysts dismiss positive Mac operating system numbers as insignificant, somebody has a credibility problem. |
Apple is the branding darling. In the 11 years since Steve Jobs' return, Apple's brand has surged in popularity. The CEO and his executive team have generated great street cred for Apple. In the consumer market, that is. But Apple is, like, nowhere among businesses.
Now why is that?
I won't be the first to make this observation, but I will offer reasons for Apple's brand failure among businesses. And I'll predict: What the iPod did for Apple's brand among consumers, the iPhone will do among businesses.
But, first, the story of numbers gone wrong: how positive Mac OS X business adoption in 2007 was dismissed as meaningless—and perhaps for good reason.
The year 2007 saw great business usage increases for Mac OS X, even as Windows Vista floundered. And, worse for Microsoft: Most businesses using Windows XP today plan to be doing so in 2009, according to the Forrester Research report "Enterprise Desktop and Web 2.0/SAAS Platform Trends, 2007."
The chart above shows impressive Mac OS X gains, but Forrester analyst Thomas Mendel dismissed the numbers' significance in his report:
"While 2007 was a big year for Apple, with its enterprise share growing threefold to 4.2 percent, uptake remains limited to enthusiasts and small workgroups. IT departments crave standardization, and Macs pose too many problems for IT departments. The verdict for enterprise-focused vendors is clear: Unless your market is a niche business group, Windows is the only desktop you need support."
Back home in Maine, my grandfather would have kissed a French Canadian lumberjack for a threefold increase in his potato crop. Apple made such gains in one year. So why does Mendel dismiss them? Because he wrongly assumes, "Macs pose too many problems for IT departments."
Michael Gartenberg, a JupiterResearch research director, classifies those "problems" in the enterprise as Maclore (that's my way of putting together Macintosh and folklore) in a blog post April 14, titled, "The Myths of Apple and Business Users." (Disclosure: Forrester and Jupiter are competitors, and, yes, I'm staging a cat fight here.)
The myths Gartenberg identifies:
- Macs cost more. "In many cases, comparable Apple systems are priced similarly or in some cases are even cheaper than their competition."
- There's not enough available Mac software. "In some markets, such as content creation, there is actually more software available for the Mac. In addition, Microsoft offers a complete and compatible version of Office for the Macintosh."
- Macs are proprietary. Mac OS X "is one of the most standards-driven operating systems you can purchase."
The myths and interpretation of the Mac adoption numbers lead to the same conclusion: Apple has a perception problem. As measure of size, think Jobs in white leather on a bicycle jumping the Grand Canyon. Usually, I'm blogging about Microsoft's perception problems, particularly to do with Windows Vista.
The perception problem is wholly Apple's fault, which is evidenced by the brand's remarkable resurgence among consumers. Apple does something well that Microsoft does poorly: advertise. Apple floods TV's prime time with ads for the iPhone, iPod Touch and MacBook Air and those hilarious, PC-jabbing "Get a Mac" commercials. Apple's marketing is simple, memorable and focused on user benefits. It's no wonder, with Apple retail stores and the popularity of the iPod as two other factors, that the marketing works so well.
In contrast, Apple's business marketing is all but absent. Marketing works, and Jobs' executive team knows this. So why is there so little for the business market? It's Apple's choice. For any company selling products, perception is everything. With Apple silent, Windows PC resellers and ill-informed IT managers are free to perpetuate myths about the Mac's business suitability. There's the perception that Macs aren't compatible and that they're hard to manage—Maclore.
Some analysts validate the myths, even when their own data shows a large spike in Mac demand among businesses. Forrester's data has a small margin of error, by the way. Mendel surveyed 50,000 business users at 2,300 companies on a month-by-month basis during 2007. The Mac gains are real.
But the iPhone is key to change. Much will depend on the iPhone 2.0 software, Exchange synchronization capability, the iPhone SDK's (software development kit's) in-house developer extensibility and whether or not Apple does some real business marketing for its products. Even without the marketing, the iPhone has enough business appeal to increase IT organizational exposure to Apple products.
That said, it's inexcusable that a brand with such consumer appeal, from a company that sells enterprise-grade software, has so little business cred. Negative perceptions about Vista put Windows in a vulnerable position. Since most businesses have to buy new hardware and brave through applications compatibility problems, the cost advantage of Windows diminishes. Apple shouldn't let this business sales opportunity pass by.
The time is long past for Apple to chip away the business perception crud.
Comments (14)
While I do admit that Apple does have a perception problem when it comes to business, those perception problems are there for a reason. Cause they are true! For instance the fact that "Macs are proprietary." You can't take the OS and loaded it on any system without violating the EULA. While I am not a Mac hater, I don’t have any confidence in the author of this article. This article demonstrates that the author has very little real world enterprise experience to actually have an opinion; yet alone write an article on the topic.
Posted by Rawknroll | April 15, 2008 9:16 PM
One reason that Apple has little Biz Cred is that Apple is making a lot of money selling the 'change is good and change for the better is best' lifestyle.
Business one the other hand is built on 'We are here today and we will be here the next day, week, month, year, decade and our business is well planed and well orgainised and predictable!'
Selling someone a new iPod every 6 months is good for Apple, but, selling a business a new computer every 5 years is not so good.
Posted by greyRoger | April 16, 2008 4:30 AM
Joe
I don't know if you have come across this story, but it show just how much resistance to the Mac, Apple faces in even a small business, not just from the IT types, but from all ares of a company and even its customers.
The first part lays out how they came make the switch;
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=298043
And the second part is a 5 month follow up on the progress;
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=312300&intsrc=hm_list
It's a good read and backs up just what you are saying.
Posted by Saxon | April 16, 2008 7:55 AM
Mac's are a combination of hardware and software. That's not what makes them proprietary though; it's that they're sold by a company (Apple) which makes them proprietary.
Just like that little OS known as Windows is proprietary as it's exclusive rights are held by it's proprietor Microsoft.
Much the same goes for that Oracle database used by the data warehousing guys on Level 4, the Sun Solaris web farm in the data centre, the SAP R3 finance system, the salesforce.com CRM system for the telemarketers in inidia, the Cisco IP telephony system deployed across the enterprise, the Domino server running corporate email and some inhouse apps and finally the Microsoft Office software package installed on every desktop.
Oh and i guess you could even say the same about that commercial RHEL distribution crammed under the desk of that creepy guy that never blinks on Level 2.
As this is a question about business adoption i think the fact that a potential business tool is proprietary is hardly an issue as most businesses are proprietors and most business tools are proprietary.
Abiding standards is another matter altogether. This DOES have a big impact on business IT environments and has absolutely nothing to do with being proprietary.
Other things that business IT need are enterprise-friendly support systems, mature reseller channels, broad and well regarded certification and training, "evangelists" (ew, i just threw up in my mouth...), bribed analysts, sponsored white papers, excellent self-help enterprise IT resources (think IBM redbooks & redpapers), phoney case studies, a software roadmap and timeline that can be relied upon (although lack of which hasn't stopped Microsoft's success... :), i'm sure there's many more i could think if if i could be bothered...
Posted by whatever | April 16, 2008 10:06 AM
"You can't take the OS and loaded it on any system without violating the EULA"
M'Kay ...When was the last time you read the EULA on your XP Pro OEM version of Windows? If the system dies that the OS came with, you can not install it on another. If you change too much hardware on it you may need to re-validate your RTU.
At least with OS X, you are allowed to transfer it to another MAC, and you can also buy 5 user licenses for a substantial discount.
Scott McNealy said it best when he called Windows a hairball, I still can not figure out how anybody looked at windows 3.0 and said "Ooo I want to use that!".
Posted by Dag Richards | April 16, 2008 10:44 AM
The Maclore (I like that) that so many folks subscribe to is FUD. Fact is that I don't think that Apple would be the same company or be able to maintain its standards if they had to pander to the great unwashed. BMWs and Cadilacs appeal to different people. That doesn't mean either is necessarily a God and the other a Dog. [I drive a Volvo...back off!]
Apple can cash in on the politics of computing without damaging and economies of scale that would affect their bottom line while simultaneously maintaining their image. Brilliant!
Posted by Nick Woodson | April 16, 2008 11:30 AM
The "Macs are expensive, don't have software, and are proprietary" 'myths' are not the real reasons they aren't making enterprise gains. I am the IT VP for a mid-size marketing company (50 employees, $25 million annual revenue), and I spent a year trying to figure out how to roll out OS X beyond the video editing department we already have.
1. Apple's marketing strategy - secrecy and surprise launches - is the exact opposite of what IT departments need to plan their operations. The sudden and unnanounced dumping of the XRaid product without an end-of-life plan or firm statement of the availability of spare parts is just one example. And just try to get your Apple Enterprise sales rep to talk to you about product roadmaps - they don't even know what they are.
2. Software availability *is* an issue. The sales department wanted to use something like ACT, which is Windows only. All the other options available for OS X at the time were OS X only. So how do I manage a mixed shop? Web based access didn't work either, as all the products we looked at with web interfaces used Active X controls.
3. Our primary, mission critical line of business application that the entire business depends on has a client app that only runs on Windows. Period. The vendor has no plans to change that. So my only option is to spend $80 for virtualization software, a few hundred on a Windows license, $40 on security software for the Windows virtual machine, and then try to train everybody in how to use the app in a virtual machine...I guarantee every employee will be saying "why not just stick with Windows?"
4. We don't run any OS X server boxes, although we did evaluate them. Having talked to several people that do, trying to get technical support from Apple on software problems can be like pulling teeth. We ended up doing better buying generic hardware with a Linux distro with support purchased separately.
5. Office 2008 and Office 2007 are compatible...as long as you don't try to use any of the features that make using Exchange Server useful, don't use SharePoint services at all, and don't build spreadsheet applications with Macros. The fact that we still don't have feature parity between Entourage and Outlook is a big failing on the part of Microsoft's Mac BU.
I wish it weren't so, but it is. Apple's licensing of ActiveSync for the iPhone is an amazingly good first step, but there's more to do before the "Biz Cred" is there.
Posted by Richard Brantley | April 16, 2008 1:10 PM
Dag Richards writes: "I still can not figure out how anybody looked at windows 3.0 and said "Ooo I want to use that!".
I think anyone who saw Windows 2.x would say that. :-)
Posted by Rick_E | April 16, 2008 1:29 PM
@ Richard Brantley
Hi Richard,
just wanted to voice my agreement with your comment, and note that none of these issue have to do with being proprietary..
Outside of Microsoft's Office there is very few business centric software around. I look forward to evaluating Lotus Notes 8 when it arrives and see what the feature parity is.
This is also not something Apple can very easily workaround, as it can with the consumer market and things like iLife. I suppose a beefed up iWork and ISO certification of OXML would be a great start for them, but these things take time and a focus on the market that they don't have.
Posted by whatever | April 16, 2008 8:33 PM
Apple's stratgey is clear and simple: win the case overwhelmingly with consumers by exceeding 25% consumer mkt share and BUSINESS WILL RUSH TO ADOPT.
You don't need an MBA to get that, do you?
Posted by pk de cville | April 18, 2008 11:29 AM
Except that, Apple is nowhere even close to breaking the double-digits in consumer marketshare.
Posted by Vision33r | April 21, 2008 4:44 PM
It boils down to a question of focus.
Apple focuses on the end user, and making the user experience happy, productive, and as little disturbed by the underlying mechanics of the system and software as possible, so that the focus remains on the task, not the tool. It's about saying 'Yes, you can do that'.
Business IT is focused on central management, deployment, risk mitigation, etc. and doesn't really mind irritating users with the features and policies that enforce these. It's largely about saying, 'No, you can't do that'.
These two approaches are diametrically opposed.
Posted by tanga | April 24, 2008 10:41 AM
Apple is not ready for the enterprise; I work in the Desktop Development department for a Fortune 500 company with over 100 thousand desktops deployed worldwide. We're just shy of 500 Macs... we have about two dozen people on our team: three of them are 100% dedicated to Mac support and development.
The Mac people are totally overloaded just trying to keep the Mac environment level, much less chase down bugs, Third Party and new software requests. Just getting Apple to honor a contract or a warranty claim is quite an ordeal.
Apple support, which we PAY for yearly, is nothing short of rude, slothful and sloppy.
It's no secret that Apple likes to groom it's image to the point of "The Emperor has no Clothes": going so far as to delete legitimate complaints experiencing problems on their forums: This is not the kind of transparency required for an enterprise partner. Nor does it instill confidence in the user base.
I would hate to see how Apple responded to a widespread bug or security flaw on the scale of Sasser or Blaster tomorrow. Don' think it can't happen: it's only a matter of time. As the Mac gets more users, you can bet there will be more people out there looking to exploit the platform.
Posted by IT Professional | May 3, 2008 5:18 PM
Apple works just fine for the free spirits in a company: graphics, web, desktop publication... pot smoking hippies? No.
Most companies are composed of people who have no idea how to work their computer and any change to their environment scares the bejezus out of them.
Same can be said for the majority of IT drones.
As someone who has worked using Windows, MAC, and Linux OS', I fear no operating system, but then I am one of a few.
But a whole generation of teenagers will soon be graduating from colleges and these people will bring Apple into the business cubicles.
Bookmark all articles of this nature and read again in 5 years, while touch scrolling your iTouchMyMAC work station.
It's a great time to be alive.
Posted by Flesh | May 13, 2008 7:56 PM