German publisher drops 12,000 PCs for Mac; more

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
One of Germany's largest newspaper publishers will become one of Apple's largest-ever customers when it converts all of its 12,000 computers from Windows systems to Macs. Also, the latest beta of Flash Player 10 promises to boost sluggish performance with Apple computers.



German firm in record PC-to-Mac shift



In a major overhaul of its IT system, German publisher Axel Springer AG said it has struck a deal with Apple to replace every one of its 12,000 active computers with Macs.



Axel Springer produces the popular German newspaper Bild and becomes the single-largest company in Europe to depend entirely on Apple hardware for its day-to-day business. The shift helps modernize the publisher's culture, according to company chief Dr. Mathias Döpfner.



The total cost of ownership of each system over its useful lifespan and simple design are also cited as reasons for the switch.



The company will use all of Apple's desktop line, including the Mac mini, iMac, and Mac Pro, and should also use MacBooks and MacBook Airs for its mobile workers; depending on the context, users will either run Mac OS X, Windows XP, or Windows Vista. The iPhone will also be on hand, Apple notes.



All company-owned systems will be Macs within the next one to two years, though Axel Springer says self-purchased Macs and iPhones will be usable with the company network from July.



Flash Player 10 beta updated



Adobe this week has released Flash Player 10 beta 2, a new test version of its major animation plugin update.



The latest beta addresses a number of minor bugs and new features but is touted primarily for its speed on Mac OS X. The Apple platform has been characteristically slow in some browsers but runs at least three times faster in benchmarks thanks to a new drawing engine and hardware video acceleration, according to Adobe developers.



Version 10 also adds 3D effects, custom filters, and dynamic Internet streams that can lower or raise quality depending on the speed of the viewer's Internet connection.



Beta 2 represents late development and should translate to a final release soon.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 75
    abster2coreabster2core Posts: 2,501member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    In a major overhaul of its IT system, German publisher Axel Springer AG said it has struck a deal with Apple to replace every one of its 12,000 active computers with Macs.



    Congratulations to Springer AG.



    Obviously Springer has done their homework. Something that a number of trolls that repeatedly surface on this sight could learn by doing the same thing.
  • Reply 2 of 75
    hdasmithhdasmith Posts: 145member
    Flash 10 can't be in that late development - YouTube doesn't work with it!
  • Reply 3 of 75
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member
    Once those people get switched over to Mac they'll wonder how they ever did without it.
  • Reply 4 of 75
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    I'd hate to be the tech support at a publishing firm if they try to run Office on the Macs. I wonder how many calls they will get about why it runs so much slower than their old computers. I guess the more people that start using Macs for business, the more software developers will move their asses in getting the performance and support up to scratch.



    Case in point: good news about Flash but long overdue. Classic example of poor support. If they've managed to squeeze out a 300% performance improvement, clearly they were doing something very wrong up till now.



    I hope they finally fix scrolling support on Macs too.
  • Reply 5 of 75
    jimzipjimzip Posts: 446member
    "The latest beta addresses a number of minor bugs and new features but is touted primarily for its speed on Mac OS X"



    Thank you, but about time Adobe!! It's been years since Flash has run well on Macs! I feel like an idiot every time I try to show my friends the latest flash wizardry and the animation slows to a crawl..



    Jimzip
  • Reply 6 of 75
    dcj001dcj001 Posts: 301member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hdasmith View Post


    Flash 10 can't be in that late development - YouTube doesn't work with it!



    Sure it does!



    You may want to check a few things on your Mac to see why it may not be working.
  • Reply 7 of 75
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    I wonder if the computers were given freely by Apple or at a severely reduced cost as part of a fee for an intense, upcoming marketing campaign.
    "Axel Springer AG is one of the largest newspaper publishing companies in Europe, having over 150 newspapers and magazines in over 30 countries, including several Central and Eastern European countries: Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and western European countries"
    Could Apple be using Springer's media juggernaut to advertise their products much more aggressively to the EU? IF you are going to do it, a liberal paper would be the place for Apple. The first German Apple Store is opening up this year in Munich, but that link seems purely coincidental considering the reach of Springer.
    "The five socio-political preambles that were written by Axel Springer in 1967, amended in 1990 following German reunification and supplemented in 2001 are part of the articles of association of Axel Springer AG. They paint a liberal picture of the world.
    ? To uphold liberty and law in Germany, a country belonging to the Western family of nations, and to further the unification of Europe.

    ? To promote reconciliation of Jews and Germans and support the vital rights of the State of Israel.

    ? To support the Transatlantic Alliance, and solidarity with the United States of America in the common values of free nations.

    ? To reject all forms of political extremism.

    ? To uphold the principles of a free social market economy. The corporate constitution defines fundamental sociopolitical convictions but does not offer opinions."
  • Reply 8 of 75
    alexiusalexius Posts: 38member
    Flash 10 B2 breaks youtube here too...
  • Reply 9 of 75
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    The article doesn't give a source on the switch to Macs. From a TUAW article, I did find a source, in German:



    http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Axel-...meldung/110435

    http://www.springer-verlag.de/inhalt...esse/6242.html
  • Reply 10 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    I'd hate to be the tech support at a publishing firm if they try to run Office on the Macs. I wonder how many calls they will get about why it runs so much slower than their old computers. I guess the more people that start using Macs for business, the more software developers will move their asses in getting the performance and support up to scratch.



    Business also needs to push apple to come out with a real desktop mid tower.
  • Reply 11 of 75
    abster2coreabster2core Posts: 2,501member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I wonder if the computers were given freely by Apple or at a severely reduced cost as part of a fee for an intense, upcoming marketing campaign.



    Bartering is not free or severely reduced. Just the method of payment is different.



    Think about it. Just how small do you think Springer or Apple are?
  • Reply 12 of 75
    abster2coreabster2core Posts: 2,501member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Joe_the_dragon View Post


    Business also needs to push apple to come out with a real desktop mid tower.



    Why? So that they could play games?



    Interesting, "Survey, 8 in 10 businesses now using Macs." http://www.computerworld.com/action/...intsrc=hm_list
  • Reply 13 of 75
    eaieai Posts: 417member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Abster2core View Post


    Why? So that they could play games?



    Interesting, "Survey, 8 in 10 businesses now using Macs." http://www.computerworld.com/action/...intsrc=hm_list



    Indeed. For your average office worker a Mac Mini is all they need. For people doing more advanced stuff, an iMac is fine. The iMac is fine even for many people who'd think they'd need a Mac Pro. Sure, a Mac Pro is faster, but considerably more expensive!



    The one area I think Apple does need to expand is making MacBooks with larger screens - a 15" MacBook would be ideal for many people, the current MacBooks are just too small for many people... Apple may want to upsell them to a MacBook Pro, but that really seems overkill and defies the point of having a Pro line at all. The MacBook like should provide what your average consumer wants, and they want larger screens for watching videos on and being more productive with...
  • Reply 14 of 75
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Abster2core View Post


    Congratulations to Springer AG.



    Obviously Springer has done their homework. Something that a number of trolls that repeatedly surface on this sight could learn by doing the same thing.



    They made a bad move, PC's are waay better.



    /take the bait
  • Reply 15 of 75
    min_tmin_t Posts: 74member
    I hope you guys uninstalled flash 9 b4 installing flash 10 beta. Youtube works ok on mine.
  • Reply 16 of 75
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by min_t View Post


    I hope you guys uninstalled flash 9 b4 installing flash 10 beta. Youtube works ok on mine.



    Worked fine for me, too. Though I first removed flashplayer.xpt and FlashPlayer.plugin from /Library/Internet Plug-Ins before installing.
  • Reply 17 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Abster2core View Post


    Why? So that they could play games?



    Interesting, "Survey, 8 in 10 businesses now using Macs." http://www.computerworld.com/action/...intsrc=hm_list



    no so they can have a system that is easy to open up and replace parts in. Also there is need for people who don't need the power of the mac pro but the mini is too under powered for there work. The Imac build in screen is not that good for all kinds of work and in a office AIO do not fit in that well as screens get replaced at a differnt time scale that the rest of the system.



    Right now the mini is very over priced for it's hardware next to other systems and it add up in a big office.
  • Reply 18 of 75
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Joe_the_dragon View Post


    no so they can have a system that is easy to open up and replace parts in. Also there is need for people who don't need the power of the mac pro but the mini is too under powered for there work.



    Performance is hardly a problem. Most business apps don't need more than a bare minimum of graphics power, and a 1GHz single core machine is plenty of power to run most business apps.
  • Reply 19 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    Performance is hardly a problem. Most business apps don't need more than a bare minimum of graphics power, and a 1GHz single core machine is plenty of power to run most business apps.



    not with vista, and all the other background stuff running at the same time.



    also 1gb ram is low in a new system now days.
  • Reply 20 of 75
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Joe_the_dragon View Post


    no so they can have a system that is easy to open up and replace parts in. Also there is need for people who don't need the power of the mac pro but the mini is too under powered for there work. The Imac build in screen is not that good for all kinds of work and in a office AIO do not fit in that well as screens get replaced at a differnt time scale that the rest of the system.



    Right now the mini is very over priced for it's hardware next to other systems and it add up in a big office.



    Those are all reasonable statements, but from my experience the thinking is a bit old school. The prices of computers have down so far over that many corporate IT departments don't do break/fix in-house, they just give you a new machine and ship the old off for repair or wait for an authorized service tech to make his rounds. Also, I can't recall a single Dell machine that didn't come with a monitor in several years. In many cases, the monitor stayed in the box as the current one was CRT thus had a bigger screen or it just wasn't worth the trouble to setup if the new and old were equivalent sizes.



    I've also seen companies use a great deal more notebooks, which are technically an AIO. I've seen these issued to people who aren't even traveling much as their main machine docked to a full size keyboard, monitor, mouse. When I started in the tech field notebooks were often loaned to people who were traveling and then turned back in when done. Could this be a trend that AIOs are becoming more popular in the workplace because companies aren't concerned with upgrading machines as much as they with downgrading the cost-center of the IT department with cheaper, less experienced staff and/or giving them higher concerns than troubleshooting a hardware issue?
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