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In the enterprise people care about price. A lot. They might be happy to buy a few iPhones for management, but a wide scale iOS deployment as a desktop replacem

In the enterprise people care about price. A lot. They might be happy to buy a few iPhones for management, but a wide scale iOS deployment as a desktop replacement to everyone in the company would be crazy, in the same way that very few companies give everyone a Mac.

chavesn 13y ago
I think if we're painting with really broad brushes, in the end companies care about ease of use. The cost of people is far greater than equipment. Of course, they don't evaluate hardware the same way that individuals do, so it looks like the price matters the most, because most companies already have established IT conventions and those qualify the highest for "ease of use" (they already know what they are doing). So it will certainly take time, and it will take smaller, riskier companies demonstrating that some futuristic new platform is soooo much easier, but if that really was the case, it really wouldn't be that crazy to see large enterprises starting to shift this way. Of course this is all based on the assumption that "it's going to be so much better and easier to use that it's obvious to the market as a whole." I'm not saying Apple will achieve that goal, but I think a lot of people who wouldn't traditionally have been "Apple fanboys" are rooting for Apple, simply because we've all seen them make transformative changes with the iPod and iPhone, and we like progress.
- rednukleus 13y ago
  > I think if we're painting with really broad brushes, in the end companies care about ease of use. The cost of people is far greater than equipment. Sounds like you have never worked in an enterprise. Ease of use for the staff is definitely not at the top of the list of concerns. They care about price, will it continue to run their legacy apps for another 10 years, how easy is it to administer etc. Regarding your second point, I have not heard anyone who is not firmly an "Apple fanboy" cheering for iOS to supplant Windows in the enterprise. Linux, yes, iOS no.
UnoriginalGuy 13y ago
Huh? Tons of companies have iOS massively rolled out to their sales teams already. You're talking about this in theoretical terms like the iPhone isn't already doing very well coupled with Exchange in the enterprise space, but it is... The iPhone costs enterprises about the same amount as a good Android phone (e.g. Galaxy 4/Note). So it isn't uncommon for companies to offer employees a choice of either an iPhone or Android phone, since both hook into Exchange equally as well and cost the company a similar amount. Blackberry is dying as the go-to enterprise phone. Has been for a while.
- rednukleus 13y ago
  Not as desktop replacements they don't. iOS devices are fine for when the user has very simple needs like filling in a form or reading a pdf, but real office work is a completely different story. A desktop Windows computer is faster, cheaper and more capabale than any phone out there. Dumb terminals are dramatically cheaper. That's why almost every office worker in the world uses them. iOS is doing well replacing Blackberry and Palm Pilot in the enterprise, not replacing Windows machines.
  - UnoriginalGuy 13y ago
    I don't follow. iPhones already exist in the enterprise space. They aren't going to need to buy more of them to use them as laptops, just keep buying the ones they're already buying and use them for two things instead of one.
    - rednukleus 13y ago
      iPhones aren't being used for anything more than trivial tasks, they are used for phone calls, reading email and light web browsing. Any smartphone can do that, and if we see convergence then probably all the new converged devices will be fine for that purpose too. It is going to be a lot harder for iPhones to become capable of taking over the job of a Windows PC than for a small Wintel phone to fill in the job of an iPhone. If convergence devices do appear in the enterprise I think its more likely that the popular ones will be Windows, Android or at an outside chance Ubuntu - and the devices more likely to disappear are the ones not best suited to the desktop work.
parasubvert 13y ago
Wide scale Blackberry deployments are in progress of being re-assessed. I know at least one large logistics company that is throwing out all pre-10 Blackberries over the next 2-3 years and allowing iOS devices as the alternative.
- rednukleus 13y ago
  Yes, the iPhone (and Android devices) are replacing Blackberries. Not desktop computers. If convergence devices show up then they will replace phones. The ones that get chosen will be the ones that make the best computers, not the ones that make the best phones.
iSnow 13y ago
If (big if) Apple goes in the direction outlined and pulls this off, enterprise stands to save a ton of money on laptop PCs and integration.
- rednukleus 13y ago
  More than they would save by going to one of their competitors? By the time convergence devices arrive, Google or Microsoft will almost certainly have the most cost effective solution for most businesses.

chavesn 13y ago

I think if we're painting with really broad brushes, in the end companies care about ease of use. The cost of people is far greater than equipment. Of course, they don't evaluate hardware the same way that individuals do, so it looks like the price matters the most, because most companies already have established IT conventions and those qualify the highest for "ease of use" (they already know what they are doing). So it will certainly take time, and it will take smaller, riskier companies demonstrating that some futuristic new platform is soooo much easier, but if that really was the case, it really wouldn't be that crazy to see large enterprises starting to shift this way. Of course this is all based on the assumption that "it's going to be so much better and easier to use that it's obvious to the market as a whole." I'm not saying Apple will achieve that goal, but I think a lot of people who wouldn't traditionally have been "Apple fanboys" are rooting for Apple, simply because we've all seen them make transformative changes with the iPod and iPhone, and we like progress.

rednukleus 13y ago
> I think if we're painting with really broad brushes, in the end companies care about ease of use. The cost of people is far greater than equipment. Sounds like you have never worked in an enterprise. Ease of use for the staff is definitely not at the top of the list of concerns. They care about price, will it continue to run their legacy apps for another 10 years, how easy is it to administer etc. Regarding your second point, I have not heard anyone who is not firmly an "Apple fanboy" cheering for iOS to supplant Windows in the enterprise. Linux, yes, iOS no.

UnoriginalGuy 13y ago

Huh? Tons of companies have iOS massively rolled out to their sales teams already. You're talking about this in theoretical terms like the iPhone isn't already doing very well coupled with Exchange in the enterprise space, but it is... The iPhone costs enterprises about the same amount as a good Android phone (e.g. Galaxy 4/Note). So it isn't uncommon for companies to offer employees a choice of either an iPhone or Android phone, since both hook into Exchange equally as well and cost the company a similar amount. Blackberry is dying as the go-to enterprise phone. Has been for a while.

rednukleus 13y ago
Not as desktop replacements they don't. iOS devices are fine for when the user has very simple needs like filling in a form or reading a pdf, but real office work is a completely different story. A desktop Windows computer is faster, cheaper and more capabale than any phone out there. Dumb terminals are dramatically cheaper. That's why almost every office worker in the world uses them. iOS is doing well replacing Blackberry and Palm Pilot in the enterprise, not replacing Windows machines.
- UnoriginalGuy 13y ago
  I don't follow. iPhones already exist in the enterprise space. They aren't going to need to buy more of them to use them as laptops, just keep buying the ones they're already buying and use them for two things instead of one.
  - rednukleus 13y ago
    iPhones aren't being used for anything more than trivial tasks, they are used for phone calls, reading email and light web browsing. Any smartphone can do that, and if we see convergence then probably all the new converged devices will be fine for that purpose too. It is going to be a lot harder for iPhones to become capable of taking over the job of a Windows PC than for a small Wintel phone to fill in the job of an iPhone. If convergence devices do appear in the enterprise I think its more likely that the popular ones will be Windows, Android or at an outside chance Ubuntu - and the devices more likely to disappear are the ones not best suited to the desktop work.

parasubvert 13y ago

Wide scale Blackberry deployments are in progress of being re-assessed. I know at least one large logistics company that is throwing out all pre-10 Blackberries over the next 2-3 years and allowing iOS devices as the alternative.

rednukleus 13y ago
Yes, the iPhone (and Android devices) are replacing Blackberries. Not desktop computers. If convergence devices show up then they will replace phones. The ones that get chosen will be the ones that make the best computers, not the ones that make the best phones.

iSnow 13y ago

If (big if) Apple goes in the direction outlined and pulls this off, enterprise stands to save a ton of money on laptop PCs and integration.

rednukleus 13y ago
More than they would save by going to one of their competitors? By the time convergence devices arrive, Google or Microsoft will almost certainly have the most cost effective solution for most businesses.