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It’s just a major shame that Apple’s business model and contempt for its users is even less appetising than Microsoft’s… Huh?

mechanical_fish 17y ago
Note the blog tag line: Big tin: IT infrastructure used by organisations to run their businesses. So, I think this final sentence needs translation. For "Apple's business model", substitute "Apple's business model, which involves not caring much about the low-margin, high-grief corporate IT hardware business." And, for "contempt for its users", substitute "contempt for the people running corporate IT departments". (Remember, IT doesn't care about the people who type on the computers. It's the people who set up the computers who are the primary "users".) I'm sure it really does suck to try and maintain Macs in a Windows-centric corporate environment. But it's not as if corporate IT has anyone but themselves to blame. They turned away from Apple in the early 1980s and have never really looked back until now. Apple has learned to survive without their business and now has no real incentive to become the next Microsoft. Somebody else needs to step up and do that.
- swombat 17y ago
  low-margin, high-grief corporate IT hardware business Low-margin? I used to work at a large bank, and I recall Dell charged them some £25 for a plain USB optical mouse with just 2 buttons and a mouse-wheel. I'm sure many businesses could do with these kinds of margins.
  - mechanical_fish 17y ago
    Are you trying to tell me that Apple's equivalent USB optical mouse was significantly cheaper than Dell's? That would be a surprise. Other questions to put this anecdote in perspective: Was that a list price or the result of a negotiation? What were the competing products in the UK at the time, and why would a bank choose Dell if those products where significantly cheaper?
    - swombat 17y ago
      The bank's supplier for desktop computer hardware was Dell. If Dell could deliver it, it was ordered from Dell. There was no "choice". And yes, it was a list price, no negotiation involved. There were plenty of competing products in the UK - I could have had a better mouse for cheaper by wandering down to PC World, down the road, and paying £10. But the corporate ordering process didn't allow me to get involved in that - all I could do was express the fact that I needed a mouse with a wheel.
      - mechanical_fish 17y ago
        If Dell could deliver it, it was ordered from Dell. Well, there you have it. If you are Dell and you secure that exclusive deal, you get to charge high margins on certain incidental products. Of course, as has been pointed out by olefoo, to get a deal like that Dell probably had to give up a lot of margin on other products. And throw in support contracts, and expend a lot of sales time...
    - GHFigs 17y ago
      Are you trying to tell me that Apple's equivalent USB optical mouse was significantly cheaper than Dell's? His comment said nothing of the kind.
  - olefoo 17y ago
    The thing is that gold-plated mouse might be making up for the 30% discount on the desktop it was attached to. If you've been a Dell corporate customer you can always tell when the end of their fiscal quarter is coming because your personal rep will be calling you with excellent deals to pad her numbers. And if you are reasonably good at vendor poker you can get some real deals simply by saying "Well, we're thinking about ordering x in a couple of weeks." Because that's too long for the reporting period; and this quarters numbers are all that matter to the person on the other end of the line.

mechanical_fish 17y ago

Note the blog tag line: Big tin: IT infrastructure used by organisations to run their businesses. So, I think this final sentence needs translation. For "Apple's business model", substitute "Apple's business model, which involves not caring much about the low-margin, high-grief corporate IT hardware business." And, for "contempt for its users", substitute "contempt for the people running corporate IT departments". (Remember, IT doesn't care about the people who type on the computers. It's the people who set up the computers who are the primary "users".) I'm sure it really does suck to try and maintain Macs in a Windows-centric corporate environment. But it's not as if corporate IT has anyone but themselves to blame. They turned away from Apple in the early 1980s and have never really looked back until now. Apple has learned to survive without their business and now has no real incentive to become the next Microsoft. Somebody else needs to step up and do that.

swombat 17y ago
low-margin, high-grief corporate IT hardware business Low-margin? I used to work at a large bank, and I recall Dell charged them some £25 for a plain USB optical mouse with just 2 buttons and a mouse-wheel. I'm sure many businesses could do with these kinds of margins.
- mechanical_fish 17y ago
  Are you trying to tell me that Apple's equivalent USB optical mouse was significantly cheaper than Dell's? That would be a surprise. Other questions to put this anecdote in perspective: Was that a list price or the result of a negotiation? What were the competing products in the UK at the time, and why would a bank choose Dell if those products where significantly cheaper?
  - swombat 17y ago
    The bank's supplier for desktop computer hardware was Dell. If Dell could deliver it, it was ordered from Dell. There was no "choice". And yes, it was a list price, no negotiation involved. There were plenty of competing products in the UK - I could have had a better mouse for cheaper by wandering down to PC World, down the road, and paying £10. But the corporate ordering process didn't allow me to get involved in that - all I could do was express the fact that I needed a mouse with a wheel.
    - mechanical_fish 17y ago
      If Dell could deliver it, it was ordered from Dell. Well, there you have it. If you are Dell and you secure that exclusive deal, you get to charge high margins on certain incidental products. Of course, as has been pointed out by olefoo, to get a deal like that Dell probably had to give up a lot of margin on other products. And throw in support contracts, and expend a lot of sales time...
  - GHFigs 17y ago
    Are you trying to tell me that Apple's equivalent USB optical mouse was significantly cheaper than Dell's? His comment said nothing of the kind.
- olefoo 17y ago
  The thing is that gold-plated mouse might be making up for the 30% discount on the desktop it was attached to. If you've been a Dell corporate customer you can always tell when the end of their fiscal quarter is coming because your personal rep will be calling you with excellent deals to pad her numbers. And if you are reasonably good at vendor poker you can get some real deals simply by saying "Well, we're thinking about ordering x in a couple of weeks." Because that's too long for the reporting period; and this quarters numbers are all that matter to the person on the other end of the line.