Apple's changing position in enterprise


The Washington Post:

It is a bit of a departure from Apple's past. Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder, famously disliked courting businesses. Per ZDNet, in 2010, Jobs told then-Wall Street Journal writers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher:

"What I love about the consumer market, that I always hated about the enterprise market, is that we come up with a product, we try to tell everybody about it, and every person votes for themselves. They go 'yes' or 'no,' and if enough of them say 'yes,' we get to come to work tomorrow. That's how it works. It's really simple. With the enterprise market, it's not so simple. The people that use the products don't decide for themselves, and the people that make those decisions sometimes are confused."

Given that Jobs thought of Apple's products as a counter to the computing grip that IBM and Microsoft had on offices, his disdain for the enterprise sector makes sense.

But the business market has changed in ways that blunt Jobs's old criticisms. He didn't like that enterprise devices weren't personal; that's no longer the case in a BYOD world. Even when there's a set list of devices approved by a workplace, it almost always includes an iPhone, an iPad or at least some iOS-friendly apps.

Times have certainly changed. I've seen the enterprise ruled by IT, but much is now different. Primarily because of the iPhone and also the cloud, policies have changed to accommodate what then would be seen as pure consumer devices. The iPhone and iPad were so good, IT directors couldn't keep them out in favor of solutions that worked best for them and not the end user, such as junk from Microsoft and BlackBerry.

What is true though is still true now. The difference is end-users in large organizations just now have a vote. If Apple keeps winning votes and manages to court the IT departments, it should only get stronger and stronger in business. This should be good for everyone.