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> Apple has a deep and decades-long commitment to helping small businesses thrive. I realize this is basic PR messaging, but it's a weird/ironic take from a co

> Apple has a deep and decades-long commitment to helping small businesses thrive. I realize this is basic PR messaging, but it's a weird/ironic take from a company that regularly competes as "the richest company in the world". Usually, Big loves Big. Big companies usually telegraph how Enterprisey they are, how the biggest of the big use their bigly products. But Apple continually messages this inverse relationship. We are the biggest, and we serve the hordes of the little. It's a weird/unusual message. (and I'm making zero claims as to the credibility of this messaging, just noticing that it's different)

reaperducer 5y ago
I've had some limited experience with Apple as a small business. My observation is that Apple's commitment varies a lot from year to year, and especially from city to city. Chicago was great. Seattle (well, Bellevue) not at all.
pram 5y ago
I don’t think it’s unusual considering 99% of their business is B2C
buildbot 5y ago
When you provide the platform, a win for small businesses is just more individual consumers really. Now people have double the iCloud accounts, Apple gets more money per account, more in app purchase revenue, etc. Apple is good at making individuals want to use their products for work, where as Microsoft is good at making workplaces use their products, so consumers know their OS and choose it for home. Different ideologies.
pdpi 5y ago
Music, cinema, photography, design — all the businesses that have historically represented the stereotypical core Apple markets are composed of smaller businesses. I expect the vast majority of those to be SMEs (at least in headcount if not turnover), and even very large players like ILM and Weta fall under 1500ish employees.
cactus2093 5y ago
oh I have a totally different reaction to that line, and I thought this was where you were going at first. Which is: Apple is really not a business-user focused company. Windows-based PCs have long dominated the business world. And as someone who does use Macs for both personal use and at work, setting up a work computer is always an awkward, sup-par experience. There are so many features (like iMessage, Facetime, and iCloud) that are exclusively designed for personal use, and no good way to e.g. configure which parts of my personal data should be available on my work computer. Or I can use a totally separate apple id on my work computer, but then I can't get access to things like my Apple Music account that I am subscribed to on my personal account.
- dumpsterdiver 5y ago
  Agreed. While the iCloud ecosystem provides a smooth experience for personal users, it's super awkward to integrate into a business environment. Activating iMessage for instance, will leave personal text messaging history on the device that can be easily accessed. Same for photo albums, etc. If the devices are managed (in an MDM) then the assumption should be that anything and everything happening on the device can be seen at any time. The conundrum is that Mac OS is such a personal user-centric operating system that it appears to be difficult for users not to take advantage of those features. It's almost like when you put a treat in front of someone - even if they didn't want it before, once it's right in front of them they suddenly want it. Edit: Clarification / expounding
- bradknowles 5y ago
  Apple has never grokked the Enterprise market. Never. At best, they understand the workgroup market reasonably well. Anything above the workgroup is an alien concept to them. Apple is nothing but a massive collection of workgroups, and workgroups of workgroups.
- saagarjha 5y ago
  It makes a bit more sense when you understand that Apple employees genuinely dogfood on their work devices with personal data.
tonyedgecombe 5y ago
I thinks it's one of their strengths. They really do seem to focus more on the individual than organisations. We all know who to go to for the enterprise alternative and the baggage that comes with that.

reaperducer 5y ago

I've had some limited experience with Apple as a small business. My observation is that Apple's commitment varies a lot from year to year, and especially from city to city. Chicago was great. Seattle (well, Bellevue) not at all.

pram 5y ago

I don’t think it’s unusual considering 99% of their business is B2C

buildbot 5y ago

When you provide the platform, a win for small businesses is just more individual consumers really. Now people have double the iCloud accounts, Apple gets more money per account, more in app purchase revenue, etc. Apple is good at making individuals want to use their products for work, where as Microsoft is good at making workplaces use their products, so consumers know their OS and choose it for home. Different ideologies.

pdpi 5y ago

Music, cinema, photography, design — all the businesses that have historically represented the stereotypical core Apple markets are composed of smaller businesses. I expect the vast majority of those to be SMEs (at least in headcount if not turnover), and even very large players like ILM and Weta fall under 1500ish employees.

cactus2093 5y ago

oh I have a totally different reaction to that line, and I thought this was where you were going at first. Which is: Apple is really not a business-user focused company. Windows-based PCs have long dominated the business world. And as someone who does use Macs for both personal use and at work, setting up a work computer is always an awkward, sup-par experience. There are so many features (like iMessage, Facetime, and iCloud) that are exclusively designed for personal use, and no good way to e.g. configure which parts of my personal data should be available on my work computer. Or I can use a totally separate apple id on my work computer, but then I can't get access to things like my Apple Music account that I am subscribed to on my personal account.

dumpsterdiver 5y ago
Agreed. While the iCloud ecosystem provides a smooth experience for personal users, it's super awkward to integrate into a business environment. Activating iMessage for instance, will leave personal text messaging history on the device that can be easily accessed. Same for photo albums, etc. If the devices are managed (in an MDM) then the assumption should be that anything and everything happening on the device can be seen at any time. The conundrum is that Mac OS is such a personal user-centric operating system that it appears to be difficult for users not to take advantage of those features. It's almost like when you put a treat in front of someone - even if they didn't want it before, once it's right in front of them they suddenly want it. Edit: Clarification / expounding
bradknowles 5y ago
Apple has never grokked the Enterprise market. Never. At best, they understand the workgroup market reasonably well. Anything above the workgroup is an alien concept to them. Apple is nothing but a massive collection of workgroups, and workgroups of workgroups.
saagarjha 5y ago
It makes a bit more sense when you understand that Apple employees genuinely dogfood on their work devices with personal data.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago

I thinks it's one of their strengths. They really do seem to focus more on the individual than organisations. We all know who to go to for the enterprise alternative and the baggage that comes with that.