Apple in the Workplace

I recently heard about a company that was moving away from their Mac environment to a Windows based environment. Their IT staff argued against the idea but the CFO argued it was what all corporates are doing. The Board of this public company committed to spending several hundred thousand dollars to change platforms, but, without a single functional improvement, just a platform shift.

It turns out that the bean counter was wrong and the IT staff were right.

This article from the Sydney Morning Herald Cracks appear in Windows’ corporate dominance seems to bear out what the average person is seeing - Apple gear everywhere

The most interesting section of the article was:

Microsoft has traditionally dominated the corporate workplace and more than 85 per cent of corporate computers still run some version of Windows software. But products based on Apple operating systems - including Macintosh computers, iPads and iPhones - are increasing in demand.

Apple declined to comment on its hiring moves. But Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett said a rash of recent job ads by Apple is “strong evidence that Apple is responding to the demands of companies for a direct, formal relationship” with the company rather than buying products from the Apple Store.

The growing appetite for Apple products in the workplace underscores the changing nature of the corporate market. Workers want lighter laptops, tablet computers with longer-lasting batteries and smartphones with apps in the office environment. And information technology departments and buyers are listening.

Last year, 46 per cent of companies in North America and Europe issued Macs to employees, according to a survey from Forrester Research.

More importantly the demographics were telling:

Younger workers and those near or at the top of the corporate ladder were more likely to use Apple products in the office, according to the survey. Forty-one per cent of Apple users were directors, 43 per cent earned more than $US150,000 a year, and 28 per cent were between the ages of 18 and 24.

In other words the future decision makers were packing Cupertino hardware as were company directors and corporate professionals.

This doesn’t bode at all well for Microsoft and their Windows platform.

In Australia the Commonwealth Bank has made the decision to jump platform from Dell to Apple for their laptops.

The battle for the hearts and minds of the current and future decision makers is being fought right now and Ballmer and his crew of happy Microsofties are not doing too well.

Happy Birthday Windows XP - Your Daddy wants to kill you now!

So Windows XP turns 10 soon and Microsoft develops a case or corporate dementia. Conveniently forgetting the total clusterfuck that was Vista. By the way that was launched in 2007.

The good thing is that they want us all to start planning our move to Office 2010 and Windows 7 now because extended support for XP and Office 2003 winds up in 2014.

2014!!

By then they should have the 3rd service pack out for Windows 8 and, assuming it isn’t a screw up of Vista proportions they’ll be trumpeting Windows 9 or whatever they’ll end up calling it.

The problem for Microsoft is that Windows XP was good. Actually it was very good. Who the hell needs to upgrade except to keep the wheels of Microsoft greased with cash that Ballmer can spend on buying Yahoo or Skype or whatever.

Now that they’ve announce Windows 8 anyone who was thinking of moving to Windows 7 has a reason to delay further. I mean if Windows 8 comes out in 2012 then corporates have until 2014 to migrate from XP and save themselves the cost of the intermediate upgrade.

This doesn’t sit well with Microsoft so expect the migrate to Windows 7 output from Microsoft to be cranked up to maximum.

Ignore it and keep your money in your pocket and wait for Windows 8, I mean it can’t be as bad as Vista…can it?

Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple CEO - its iMargeddon

It was always going to happen.

Jobs was never going to stay as CEO forever.

The fact that he resigned the way he did was smart, and good for Apple.

Despite what all the ADHD afflicted Wall Street wunderkinder think, dumping shares and claiming doom and gloom because their spreadsheet models say so, this isn’t as big a problem as everyone thinks.

1. Jobs is a long term thinker. He knew this day was coming and has been busy preparing.
2. While the common view of Apple is that its a company built on one tent pole, and that tent pole is Steve Jobs - there’s more to the company that just him.
3. Jobs brilliance lies in the fact that he can look at technology and distill it down to something that is accessible to the “I just want it to work” crowd.
4. I’m willing to bet money that he’s been explaining this rationale to everyone in his inner circle.
5. Apple’s product line for the next 2 years are already in the pipeline.
6. Apple’s engineering mules for the next 4 years of possible products are in the pipeline.

It’ll be good for column inches to say that Apple is screwed. Everyone said that the day Bill Gates resigned Microsoft was screwed.

Different situation. Gates resigned after the rot had set in and handed the reigns over to Monkey Boy. Vista was already in the works before Bill resigned, he just left the big steaming pile for Ballmer to deal with.

This time Jobs, appears, to be leaving with Apple going from strength to strength.

1. The iPhone 5 due ‘real soon now’.
2. The Mac grabbing market share like Ballmer grabs futile acquisitions.
3. A very successful patent war being fought against Samsung. The timing on this is interesting too.

The real reason I know Apple is in good stead - 5 year olds.

The other day I was in one of those Home Maker Super Centres.

The 5 year olds wanted to play with iPads and Macs. I mean all of them. They weren’t lining up top play with Windows 7 laptops or someone else’s tablet.

Want to know what tech trend to follow look at what floats the boat of a 5 year old.

I don’t really think iMargeddon is here - but if you do I’ll offer you a couple of bucks for your Apple shares.

The Apple Double Play.

I just finished reading an article in PC Magazine that really got me thinking.

The piece was entitled ‘The Apple Product That Really Worries PC Vendors’.

It really got me thinking, especially in light of the fact that the Commonwealth Bank recently decided to arm their staff with MacBook Air laptops.

The interesting this about this was the following:

Branch visitors were free to use iMac, iPad, iPod and Asus touchscreen devices to browse foreign exchange rates, products, and to make appointments with CBA specialists – much like how Apple customers arranged to visit the vendor’s ‘Genius bar’.
The bank also planned to replace internal Dell desktops with MacBook Air notebooks nationwide, allowing employees to choose to operate on either Mac OS or Windows platforms.

Wow! I really mean WOW!

Think about this in terms of the the information from Canalys that I mentioned in this post ‘Wintel Market Share Slips’.

The Commonwealth Bank, the guys who hung on to OS/2 for years past its expiry date are doing a widespread deployment of Apple MacBook Air laptops. This is astounding news.

Here’s the really amazing potential - lets assume that they replace all 4000 Dell laptops with the MacBook Air. Here’s the really interesting maths:

4000 copies of Windows 7 Entreprise, even at the best possible price couldn’t be less that $175 a copy, lets call it $150 just to keep the calculations simple. Lion is $31.99.

That means a saving on OS upgrade costs of $472,040.

Half a Million Dollars saving on an Operating System upgrade!

Where would you want the half million, on your bottom line or on Microsoft’s?

Careful of your answer, your shareholders are watching.

Does John Dvorak think Microsoft has jumped the shark too?

I came across this post on PC Magazine's website. Its an interesting take on what's happening at Microsoft and given my thoughts on what's happening there I thought I'd add the link here:

Wintel, Death by a Thousand Budget Cuts

Here's the link to my piece on this topic:

Has Microsoft Jumped the Shark?

Here we go down the Yellow Brick Road because there's a Pot of Gold at the end of the Rainbow

This is the first in a series of many posts on the changes that are happening at the site of one of my clients based in Brisbane.

They have been successfully running a mixed environment of UNIX (AIX and BSD), Linux (Red Hat), MacOS X, Windows XP and 7 for a few years. Kept their costs down while keeping the availability up.

The company has 10 sites on the eastern seaboard of Australia and about a hundred and fifty users.

Recently their Group Financial Controller convinced the company management to ignore the advice of their in house IT guys and move to a Windows mono-culture. The reason she did this was because in her extensive experience with IT this was the only environment that worked and would deliver huge benefits to the business, short and long term.

They asked me to get involved and help 'guide' the in-house IT guys with the change.

Now personally I don't think this is going to be a smart idea, or a cheap one or that it will deliver any of the huge benefits to the business that she's claiming. That being said I think its going to be an interesting journey for us to follow.

So lets saddle up and see where the yellow brick road is going to take us.