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?

The best Tech Industry Analyst on the Planet.

Each morning people look to their inbox to read the latest piece of financial prognostication from the merchant bank employed augury.

With bated breath they wait to see what pearls of wisdom they’ve gleaned from reading the entrails of some dead animal, or the patterns of the clouds, flights of birds or even the alignment of the planets.

The readers of these inarticulate Nostradamus like ravings then trade their hard earned on the basis of these obscure prophecies. They also pay good money to get these ‘briefings’.

I’ve met the best Tech Industry Analyst on the planet. My 5 year old.

The other day I was in JB Hi-Fiand something struck me.

As I was walking through the computers I noticed that all the kids (and a lot of the adults) were happily playing with the iPads, iMacs and MacBooks. Most of the people in the store were also rocking an iPhone.

The Windows machines - and there were a lot of them (mostly from Dell) didn’t have a soul fiddling with them. JB Hi-Fi (at least at this store) were giving over about 20 meters of shelf space to these machines and I wasn’t seeing anyone show any interest.

In fact they had an Alienware laptop on display. I mean this is a rockstar of a gaming laptop with horsepower to spare, glowing lights, backlit keyboard, awesome performance and no one was giving it the time of day.

Now I don’t know how much Dell pay JB for the shelf space, if anything, but, I also noticed that JB had all Dell stock marked down. Still no one was buying, or even remotely interested.

Here’s why I’d be worried if I were Microsoft. All the kids, and I mean ALL the kids. Wanted to play with the Apple gear. They were waiting for a turn and I’ve seen this in other places too.

I remember many years back, kids would want to line up and play with Windows machines. Yeah. I know. Somebody’s going to talk about games and gaming. The demo XBox and Playstations weren’t being used either.

The kids wanted to play with the Apple gear. I even heard some kids complaining when their parents wanted to leave the store because they wanted to keep playing with the equipment.

If so many kids want to play with Apple equipment and not Windows - in a few years, when they’re making the buying decisions I think Microsoft will be in a pack of trouble.

They’re losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation of buyers.

A Brisbane Board Meeting - Hooray!

The time had finally came. I flew up to Brisbane the day before the Board meeting.

I wanted to prepare. This was going to be an unhappy meeting for someone.

The day came and I got a cab over to their office. It was off Coronation Drive so the morning traffic was a struggle.

I arrived and went in. The Financial Controller was in my face almost from the moment I walked in. She wanted to know what I was going to tell the board.

I said “I’m going to give them my professional opinion on what I think is the best solution for this business”.

She was so arrogantly self-absorbed that she didn’t think for a moment that I might say something that wasn’t in agreement with her agenda.

We walked into the Boardroom and got introduced after a few minutes of pleasantries we sat down and the meeting started. The technology stuff was scheduled for the start so at least I didn’t have long to wait.

The man who started the company, I’ll call him Stavros, turned to me and said “What do you think of our new technology strategy?”

“I think its going to waste a lot of money and it won’t give you anything new or unique.”

The Financial Controller nearly burst her brain.

The Board was surprised.

“Look”, I said, “regardless of what you’ve been told, you will have to spend over $400,000 to execute this strategy and you will have no extra functionality. You’re spending that money just to replace everything with Windows machines. You won’t get anything extra to what you have now. You may have the money to throw at this, but, you can spend $400,000 on computers, or, you can spend $400,000 on something that’ll turn into profit.”

Everyone around the table thought about this for a moment.

The Financial Controller gave me the ‘look of death’. I think I was off her Christmas Card list for good.

She was about to launch into a tirade when she was cut off by Stavros. He asked me if using Windows everywhere was what all businesses did.

“A lot of business do. But its expensive. Let me explain.”

The Board nodded.

“A copy of Windows costs you around $350 for an upgrade. A copy of the Mac Operating System costs you $32.00 for an upgrade. You have about 150 computers and you will have to pay for at least one upgrade in the life of a piece of hardware. The maths is simple About $52,000 for Windows and $4,800 for the Mac OS. You’re putting $48,000 in Microsoft’s pocket for nothing really. The operating system doesn’t do anything except the computer to turn on and be ready to do something.”

Just then the Financial Controller jumped in and said, “But no one uses Mac’s in business except for graphics arts companies. We’re in a different business.”

I was about to answer when the Board member who wasn’t involved in the business said, “But the Commonwealth Bank has just gotten rid of 4000 Dell laptops and replaced them with Mac laptops. They’ve got the new branch in Queen Street and there’s lots of Apple equipment in there.”

The Financial Controller’s face turned the same colour as her lipstick…

Stavros turned to her and said that he wanted to see all her financial projections for this move to Windows including all the benefits. He asked me to have a look at them and report back to him.

This meant one more trip to Brisbane. It ended up being memorable.

I’ll tell you how this story finished soon.

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.

R.I.P Microsoft Reader. What? I thought it died years ago?

I came across an article talking about this the other day. They claimed that the product was too ahead of its time.

This just sounds like the blatherings of a fanboi.

To be sure, over the years there have been a lot of technically brilliant products that have stumbled and failed. VHS Vs. Beta anyone?

Microsoft Reader failed because it was just created as yet another way to drive sales of Windows. There was never going to be a Kindle-like device from Redmond and that was always going to be the problem.

I mean who the hell was going to snuggle up in bed with one of those original and insanely expensive Windows Tablet PC’s (all 3+ Kgs of it) to read their favourite book, while connected to power because the battery life was so crappy?

Wake up to yourselves! That was never going to happen!

The great thing about Amazon’s solution is that I can read my books on any doohickey I’ve got - iOS, Android even WinMoPho as well as a real honest to goodness Kindle. That was never going to happen with the Microsoft Reader.

And that’s the whole problem with Microsoft, they’re a one trick pony and that trick is Windows. Everything they do is built on the credo of “sell more Windows” and that’s going to be the reason for their ultimate failure. I mean if people didn’t really want choice then every car would be a Ford.

Sometimes people just want to buy a Kindle.

How do I know that the Mac is making corporate inroads?

Challenging the dominion of Windows in the corporate world is the Mac.

Buoyed by increasing marketshare and a better user experience there are cracks starting to appear in Microsoft’s corporate Berlin Wall.

Autodesk announced that AutoCAD LT will be available through the App Store at $899.

AutoCAD has been available on the Mac platform for a while now as well.

Is this the first of many to come?

There's no inevitability as long as there's a willingness to think

I was back in Brisbane. My third trip, and, sadly, things weren’t improving.

The Financial Controller was still meddling in technology stuff and the IT guys were watching their jobs and their employer get flushed down the sewer by this stupid bean counter.

It was a recipe for disaster.

I actually felt sorry for the owners of the business. It was a family run operation and the board was made up of three family members, the Financial Controller and a friend of the family who was reasonably successful in his own right.

They were really clueless about technology and had trusted the Financial Controller. They got taken for a ride by someone who should have stuck to what they were good at rather than getting involved in something that they were hopelessly ill equipped to deal with.

The final straw for me was the cost of conversion moving to a complete Windows monoculture was massive.

While the Financial Controller was busy explaining to everyone that there were huge benefits from using Windows. George and his crew were seeing budgetary estimates rise quickly.

The root problem was the demand to go to a Windows monoculture. Had they stayed with the mixed environment they had, upgraded their Windows XP devices to Windows 7 as well as spend some money on addressing the few shortfalls they had in the environment they would be spending around $55,000.

Taking everything out and replacing it with Windows from start to finish was going to cost the company in excess of $425,000 - and here’s the thing - after spending all this money they’d have exactly the same capabilities that they had with their old environment.

That’s right. No net change in capabilities or functionality. A lot of money gets spent and nothing changes.

Now there’s a real strategy for success.

I was invited to a board meeting by the Financial Controller to provide my opinions regarding the migration.

This was going to be an interesting board meeting.

Beam Me Up Ballmer!

Just following on from my piece the other day about Ballmer’s infatuation with a Star Trek interface for Windows.

I came across this article on BGR.COM - Microsoft adding speech recognition tech to Windows 8.

Looks like Redmond has become the launch pad for the Starship Enterprise.

Live long and be baffled!