4 ms·

This announcement is pretty sad. If you're wondering why Apple is an IT department nightmare, this announcement is more of a confession. Today your corporate Ma

This announcement is pretty sad. If you're wondering why Apple is an IT department nightmare, this announcement is more of a confession. Today your corporate MacBook can have ... preinstalled software! And user groups (for the Apple store and iCloud). Wait, there's more! > In addition, customers can now set up business email, calendar, and directory services with their own domain name for seamless and elevated communication and collaboration. Wow, a custom domain name! > Apple Business enables automated Managed Apple Account creation for new employees through integration with an identity service provider, including Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra ID, and more. In the year 2026, I can finally start logging into my corporate laptop with my corporate ID. Wow! Them stapling on the announcement of advertisements for Apple Maps is especially hilarious. I don't think the people managing fleet devices at a corporation are the same people who are interested in setting their location ad strategy. But Apple saw they had two vaguely business-y things at the same time and thought they would really hit it off together. I have to imagine that the Apple Neo is heavily aimed at volume sales - low level white collar workers and education. These features seem to be hastily assembled to meet the needs of these potential buyers.

general_reveal 7mo ago
Apple will probably deliver the best unified AI experience for productivity. Digging into Microsoft’s domain (which has been seriously selling off). Your workers will want iOS and right now its perfect timing to sell LLM subs. This is a very aggressive and opportunistic move.
- bitpush 7mo ago
  True, like Siri. Sorry Apple Intelligence.
seawsurf 7mo ago
Why people bother with all of this to lock the environment into some kind of corporate nightmare? Why not allow some freedom for the worker. I don't see the appeal, it feels like a claustrophobic cage
- Arainach 7mo ago
  There are many reasons. * Preprovisioning - devices have the right certificates and know about your corporate networks. They have the necessary apps and just work. * Tracking - if a device is lost or stolen, monitor where it is and remotely lock or wipe it * Monitoring - have a log to audit if someone does something malicious * Security - reduce the chance of your employees installing malware, spyware, etc. whether by accident or intention * Locking things down - put gates in the way of bad actions like copying sensitive data into public apps or clouds. Even if you're unable to block everything, attempts to block remind honest employees and provide strong evidence that anyone who proceeds was intentionally violating policy and should be fired. Etc., etc.
  - dabockster 7mo ago
    Bigger one: * Predictability - eliminating the number of unknown factors that could cause a person to have issues using their computer. Reminds me of how a secretary I serviced was somehow able to install Google Desktop back in the day, and how that caused a massive argument between my boss and theirs when their computer needed to be re-imaged. Most IT approved programs are known to store user data in known locations on a computer, which makes backups and restorations very easy. Stuff like Google Desktop did not do that, which means likely breaking someone's workflow in the re-image process.
- ryukoposting 7mo ago
  Because corporations like to control their peons. I'm sure your work laptop is laden with the same kind of corporate bullshit, it's just that MS Exchange stopped being a hot topic like 25 years ago.
- legitster 7mo ago
  The most clear and obvious use case is for school computers. You do NOT want to provision student devices en masse without protections (for both the students and the district). I envision this is a deal breaker right now that Apple is dealing with. Even if your Corp doesn't want to do full user surveillance, there's still a lot of advantages to group policy. Roll out new software instantly, SSO enforcement, remote troubleshooting, etc.
stephenr 7mo ago
It's an announcement that they're providing first party integrated first party services for something that until now has largely relied on third party solutions. Not knowing about the exiting solutions to provision/manage Macs is one thing. Not knowing about them and claiming they're inferior because of what you didn't know is just bizarre. I don't know what it is about the type of people who end up doing pc support, but an irrational dislike of Macs seems to be systemic. I worked in an IT department when Novell was still a thing, an a senior guy with years of Unix experience would make jokes about "toy operating system" while also alternating between screaming at and practically fellating windows XP.

general_reveal 7mo ago

Apple will probably deliver the best unified AI experience for productivity. Digging into Microsoft’s domain (which has been seriously selling off). Your workers will want iOS and right now its perfect timing to sell LLM subs. This is a very aggressive and opportunistic move.

bitpush 7mo ago
True, like Siri. Sorry Apple Intelligence.

seawsurf 7mo ago

Why people bother with all of this to lock the environment into some kind of corporate nightmare? Why not allow some freedom for the worker. I don't see the appeal, it feels like a claustrophobic cage

Arainach 7mo ago
There are many reasons. * Preprovisioning - devices have the right certificates and know about your corporate networks. They have the necessary apps and just work. * Tracking - if a device is lost or stolen, monitor where it is and remotely lock or wipe it * Monitoring - have a log to audit if someone does something malicious * Security - reduce the chance of your employees installing malware, spyware, etc. whether by accident or intention * Locking things down - put gates in the way of bad actions like copying sensitive data into public apps or clouds. Even if you're unable to block everything, attempts to block remind honest employees and provide strong evidence that anyone who proceeds was intentionally violating policy and should be fired. Etc., etc.
- dabockster 7mo ago
  Bigger one: * Predictability - eliminating the number of unknown factors that could cause a person to have issues using their computer. Reminds me of how a secretary I serviced was somehow able to install Google Desktop back in the day, and how that caused a massive argument between my boss and theirs when their computer needed to be re-imaged. Most IT approved programs are known to store user data in known locations on a computer, which makes backups and restorations very easy. Stuff like Google Desktop did not do that, which means likely breaking someone's workflow in the re-image process.
ryukoposting 7mo ago
Because corporations like to control their peons. I'm sure your work laptop is laden with the same kind of corporate bullshit, it's just that MS Exchange stopped being a hot topic like 25 years ago.
legitster 7mo ago
The most clear and obvious use case is for school computers. You do NOT want to provision student devices en masse without protections (for both the students and the district). I envision this is a deal breaker right now that Apple is dealing with. Even if your Corp doesn't want to do full user surveillance, there's still a lot of advantages to group policy. Roll out new software instantly, SSO enforcement, remote troubleshooting, etc.

stephenr 7mo ago

It's an announcement that they're providing first party integrated first party services for something that until now has largely relied on third party solutions. Not knowing about the exiting solutions to provision/manage Macs is one thing. Not knowing about them and claiming they're inferior because of what you didn't know is just bizarre. I don't know what it is about the type of people who end up doing pc support, but an irrational dislike of Macs seems to be systemic. I worked in an IT department when Novell was still a thing, an a senior guy with years of Unix experience would make jokes about "toy operating system" while also alternating between screaming at and practically fellating windows XP.