Some Perspective

In the last few days, ApplePeels has gotten more traffic than it has since I started writing it.  Apple is a very difficult company to understand from the outside.  If you love the products, like I and many others do, it is really hard to accept the fact that these great products can come from a company that has some practices that many people might find distasteful.  That doesn't mean you have to stop loving the products, it just means that the world inside Apple might not be what you thought it was.

I don't want people to stop using Macs.  I don't plan to stop using mine, and I still try to convince people who would benefit from a Mac to get one. Unfortunately there are people who are better off without a Mac. Every computer needs support at some point, and it there are no Mac people around, and I convince someone to buy one, and they live one hundred miles away, I will likely end up being their support person at some time.  I'm a very good support person, but I would rather do something else beside spend a few hours updating someone's system.

The real point of my blog is that Apple needs to listen more to its users.  Apple has been a company over the years that has ignored the wishes of important segments of potential customers. It wasn't always that way.  A vast number of people would like to see Apple succeed.  I'm one of them, but I actually don't think Apple can make just as a consumer company.

For three years running back in the late nineties, I took part in executive briefings with a major corporate PowerBook user.  They made three straight trips to Cupertino to tell Apple that they wanted a light weight replacement for their Duo's.  At each of those meetings, successive product managers told the customer that what they really wanted was a PowerBook that was a desktop replacement.  Well after three years, the customer stopping coming and migrated away from the Apple laptop platform.  They were not alone.  To this day, there are only a handful of corporate PowerBook companies.  Now I think Apple PowerBooks are some of the most reliable and best designed products out there.  However, I don't consider myself an expert since I have never taken the time to try other products.  Just as I bought a Dell desktop last fall, I will likely buy an Intel laptop of some form this year, just so I know what I am talking about when I write about laptops.

At one time almost every CIO that I knew in High Education carried and Apple Duo.  Was it right to abandon this market because of the small size, I don't have an answer.  All I know is that Apple lost a lot of customers who came close to begging for a lightweight laptop.  Of course Apple also lost a lot of customers by delivering some very inferior laptops.  No company, including Apple is perfect, and looking back is always easier that looking forward.

At one time Apple had a very close relationship with many higher education institutions.  It was not just one way communication.  Apple listened and often delivered what the customers really wanted and suggested.

That's not the Apple of today.  This comes from a high level friend of Apple and someone who has been an Apple champion for years.

Jobs himself went publicly after one of the most respected ......... CIOs at a recent CIO meeting.  With a model like that, it is no wonder that Cupertino is what it is.   Something is sorely wrong in Cupertino. They need to fix that, but I suspect it is in the Chairman's office where the real problem is. He undoubtedly has his board under his thumb.

That should not come as a surprise, last summer in an interview with Walt Mossberg, Steve was quoted as saying this.

And you know, we're not so good at selling to the enterprise where you've got, in the Fortune 500, five hundred orifices called CIOs.

Steve also said this which pretty much covers Apple theory.

We don't want to get into something unless we   can invent or control the core technology in it. And the more we look  at it, for more and more consumer devices the core technology in them is going to be software. More and more they look like software in a box. And a lot of traditional consumer-electronics companies haven't 
grokked [fully understood] software.

We look at a lot of things but I'm as proud of the products that we have not done as I am of the ones we have done.

This is a really good consumer strategy.  However, can this strategy keep the computers that we all know and love on the market for the foreseeable future.  I don't have the answer.

I,  along with many others who have come and gone at Apple, believe that Apple could have a place in the enterprise market with just a little more effort.  It is very challenging to change a consumer company into one that pays even a little attention to the enterprise market.  I think it would be worth the effort and would eventually have a major impact on Apple's market share.

Yet is would be very hard for Apple to control the core technologies of the enterprise market.  I do believe that Apple together with the Linux world could make a huge impact on the enterprise market.  I really hope Apple continues to pay attention to what is happening in the web world because tightly integrated web apps are going to make a huge difference in the enterprise.  If the hold of Internet Explorer can be broken, it will one less barrier to Apple being a significant enterprise players.  Some of the other barriers might require Apple to cooperate a little more than they normally do with customers and competitors.

You had to be at Apple to appreciate the challenges that Apple field people faced when the first Xserve was released.  To say that there were hidden "features" and a few surprises is understating the case.  It was a good product but it would have been an even better product if it had been released after extensive testing and cooperation with enterprise customers.  However, Apple's model of secrecy doesn't fit that.

Selling to the enterprise requires building relationships, product maps, and minimizing disruptive technology changes.  Can Apple which is famous for secrecy, innovative products and sometimes disruptive technology address both consumer and enterprise markets?  So far the desire has not been there to make the changes at Apple to go after the enterprise.  The reason is that there are people at Apple who do not believe that Apple belongs in the enterprise or would derive benefit from the enterprise market.  For all I know, Steve could be one of those people, but I do not know that for a fact.

What I do know is that Apple's products are more than good enough for the enterprise with some changes in the way they are sold and supported.  To really get into the enterprise, Apple needs more of a mindset change than a lot of product changes.  Many of those changes need to start at the way the Apple field level is managed and supported.  Here's another comment from an Apple watcher on his Apple field rep.

"His boss quit. His boss's boss quit. He is left with the whole thing doing several jobs. Of course, they are letting him hang out to dry in the process. He doesn't complain and I really don't know if he realizes that.  I had breakfast with him recently. He is damn tired.   He can deal with it, but I'll bet it is coming out of his personal life and he has small children. It comes out of them too.  You don't increase sales by beating up and dumping on the folks who are in the front line."

One of the consistent things I have heard from ex-Apple people who have gone to other more enterprise oriented computer companies is that you no longer have to be the jack of all trades, that there are people who specialize is solving problems so the field sales force can sell and the customer experience isn't one of finding out after buying the product that the help they need is hard to find at Apple.

Don't get me wrong there are plenty of happy Apple customers out there who don't experience problems, but when you're a potential Apple enterprise customer, you might face some unexpected hurdles because Apple as Steve says isn't very good at selling to the enterprise.

Perhaps I'm worrying about nothing and this next release of OS X will be such an outstanding enterprise OS that we'll see that jump in market share that the world's best hardware and software really deserves.  That would prove me wrong which would not make me unhappy.  Then  I could stop writing about Apple and focus on the beach.

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Comments

[Dave Hanks]

I owned 3 Duos. Did medical conference sales for years. The best computer Apple ever made... all are gone now. May they rest in peace. The concept of the dock was beautifully executed. I would buy another today if they revived the system. I could see a second CPU being "available" when docked for extra speed and a fully functional computer (in the dock) when I take out the Duo (new) for a road trip.

[Chris]

Having worked at Apple for several years in education sales, I fully agree with most of your comments. Steve's need for control and his attitude towards sales are critical components of the Apple Corporate culture. There are pros and cons for his positions and right now you would have to say the pros are in the lead. Of course all things change...

Control in all things has resulted in tightly integrated software and hardware that just works. And it is great as long as the people in control have great vision. When they make a mistake it hurts, the cube etc. however if they are fast on their feet they can change direction quickly. Look how quickly Steve turned Apple around when he returned and the cube really did not last long.

Steve believes that if you build cool things they will come(buy). This translates to -We build cool things and if you don't buy them then you don't understand(too dumb to understand?) Its that last part that often seems to result in an attitude of "If you do not understand how cool our things are then you are to stupid to bother with." Well the whole idea of sales is to create a want. And Apple is good at doing this at a high level. To say he has convinced the world that the iPod is Cool is an understatement.

But Apple's sale strategies boil down to control again. Steve can control the pitch at the high level but down at the low level of the individual saleperson calling on the enterprise or school district it is more difficult. A good salesperson will create the want as well but he will also want control over pricing details etc to close the sale. He will not get that freedom at Apple. He will have to go back to the top for permission to make deals. And of course at Apple pricing is controlled very closely by the CFO organization! Yes can you think of anything that would drive a saleman more crazy than having to negotiate with a bean counter to get a better price? Whether you think this is good or bad the CFO has kept Apple afloat during some very difficult times. This has further reinforced the control attitude.

Well, enough here. I agree with your post. I love Apple products and may Steve and John keep innovation alive and well in the computer industry.