Apple's new Joint Venture small business support plan coming on iPad day
During a series of store-wide meetings on Sunday, Apple prepped its retail employees for a March 2 launch of Joint Venture, a new technical support plan targeted at small businesses, AppleInsider has learned.
Last week, AppleInsider exclusively reported that Apple had scheduled a secretive meeting Sunday for retail employees. Details emerged later that week, revealing that the meeting was called to prepare employees for the imminent announcement of a new enterprise service plan, dubbed Joint Venture.
According to people in attendance, the meeting's agenda on Sunday did indeed involve an internal unveiling of the new Joint Venture priority service plan. Sources have told AppleInsider that the plan will cost around $500 a year and will be made available to businesses when purchasing a new Mac. Up to 5 systems will be covered by the plan, though additional systems may be added for $99 a year.
The tagline for the service will reportedly be: "Get Setup. Get Trained. Keep Running." One key selling point of Joint Venture will be the option to have Apple Genius technicians install and configure Microsoft Exchange during setup.
Customers enrolled in the plan will receive priority service at the Genius Bar and gain access to an exclusive Apple Genius-manned technical support number at the corporate office. Similar to Apple's ProCare service plan, customers will be first in line for repairs.
During repairs that take longer than 24 hours to complete, customers may be eligible to borrow 15-inch MacBook Pros with iWork and Microsoft Office preinstalled.
Joint Venture will also provide customers with personal setup data transfer, limited group training sessions (up to 3 sessions per year, for up to 8 people at a time) and access to a website to schedule phone support appointments with Apple Genius technicians, according to one person familiar with the matter. Apple will reportedly continue to offer its AppleCare and One to One plans alongside Joint Venture.
The Cupertino, Calif., Mac maker intends to launch the new service on March 2 in the U.S. and March 3 in the U.K., sources said. Given that Apple has sent out invitations to a media event to release the second-generation iPad, the company could likely announce the new service plan during the event.
Apple has already begun prepping for Wednesday's event, which will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Photos surfaced last week of promotional signage outside the venue featuring a large Apple logo surrounded by numerous colored dots.
As reported last week, a new enterprise-focused support service from Apple could end up competing with members of the Apple Consultants Network. Certified Apple consultants are reportedly upset over recent changes to Apple retail policy that require technical support referrals from retail stores to go through third-party provider OnForce. It has been suggested that Apple made these changes in preparation for the launch of Joint Venture.
Last week, AppleInsider exclusively reported that Apple had scheduled a secretive meeting Sunday for retail employees. Details emerged later that week, revealing that the meeting was called to prepare employees for the imminent announcement of a new enterprise service plan, dubbed Joint Venture.
According to people in attendance, the meeting's agenda on Sunday did indeed involve an internal unveiling of the new Joint Venture priority service plan. Sources have told AppleInsider that the plan will cost around $500 a year and will be made available to businesses when purchasing a new Mac. Up to 5 systems will be covered by the plan, though additional systems may be added for $99 a year.
The tagline for the service will reportedly be: "Get Setup. Get Trained. Keep Running." One key selling point of Joint Venture will be the option to have Apple Genius technicians install and configure Microsoft Exchange during setup.
Customers enrolled in the plan will receive priority service at the Genius Bar and gain access to an exclusive Apple Genius-manned technical support number at the corporate office. Similar to Apple's ProCare service plan, customers will be first in line for repairs.
During repairs that take longer than 24 hours to complete, customers may be eligible to borrow 15-inch MacBook Pros with iWork and Microsoft Office preinstalled.
Joint Venture will also provide customers with personal setup data transfer, limited group training sessions (up to 3 sessions per year, for up to 8 people at a time) and access to a website to schedule phone support appointments with Apple Genius technicians, according to one person familiar with the matter. Apple will reportedly continue to offer its AppleCare and One to One plans alongside Joint Venture.
The Cupertino, Calif., Mac maker intends to launch the new service on March 2 in the U.S. and March 3 in the U.K., sources said. Given that Apple has sent out invitations to a media event to release the second-generation iPad, the company could likely announce the new service plan during the event.
Apple has already begun prepping for Wednesday's event, which will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Photos surfaced last week of promotional signage outside the venue featuring a large Apple logo surrounded by numerous colored dots.
As reported last week, a new enterprise-focused support service from Apple could end up competing with members of the Apple Consultants Network. Certified Apple consultants are reportedly upset over recent changes to Apple retail policy that require technical support referrals from retail stores to go through third-party provider OnForce. It has been suggested that Apple made these changes in preparation for the launch of Joint Venture.
Comments
There are two sides to a coin. If there's demand for this service, then it'll be a success.
You shouldn't bet against Apple but if you insist... Heads I win, tails you lose.
No matter how much Apple focuses on business, no matter many businesses adopt Apple’s products some around here will continually call their products nothing more than toys. They could even IBM’s CEO saying the iPad isn’t a toy while La Roux signs “I’m not your toy” and those people would still say it’s nothing more than a toy.
I know this may sound silly to some but E-Mail is a big deal for a modern business but it also can be a big distraction. In any event I'm not sure the current leaked info is enough to bring in small business, especially at the listed price. Of course there is likely plenty that hasn't been leaked yet so that is another consideration. At the moment though it doesn't look all that compelling, guess we find out for sure on the 2nd.
Groan. So sad to see yet another example of dreadful English grammar exhibited by Apple marketing. Is it part of their mission statement to trash the language? Perhaps they're doing it just to get attention? I wonder how many people are refusing to buy Apple products because of the way Apple are so disrespectful to the language? Probably very, very few. ;-)
I wonder whether the grammar of Apple advertising is just as dire in the other languages in which they advertise?
"Come and see what 2011 will be the year of"
Groan. So sad to see yet another example of dreadful English grammar exhibited by Apple marketing. Is it part of their mission statement to trash the language? Perhaps they're doing it just to get attention? I wonder how many people are refusing to buy Apple products because of the way Apple are so disrespectful to the language? Probably very, very few. ;-)
I wonder whether the grammar of Apple advertising is just as dire in the other languages in which they advertise?
What has this to do with anything?
No matter how much Apple focuses on business, no matter many businesses adopt Apple?s products some around here will continually call their products nothing more than toys. They could even IBM?s CEO saying the iPad isn?t a toy while La Roux signs ?I?m not your toy? and those people would still say it?s nothing more than a toy.
When your rackmount server has a measly 1 year warranty standard it's kinda hard to take them seriously about the enterprise. The market agreed.
This is a step in the right direction, but they still have a long ways to go.
When your rackmount server has a measly 1 year warranty standard it's kinda hard to take them seriously about the enterprise. The market agreed.
This is a step in the right direction, but they still have a long ways to go.
Who said anything about the enterprise? Apple is and always has been a company that focuses on small businesses. THAT is why their rackmounts failed. Apple never really cared about enterprise to begin with. It's not a company that is interested in the kind of legacy support enterprise demands. Far too forward looking.
What would really bring in small businesses is E-Mail.
One of the major features of the service is them setting up the email support. It's in the article. That might cover this issue pretty well.
"Come and see what 2011 will be the year of"
Groan. So sad to see yet another example of dreadful English grammar exhibited by Apple marketing. Is it part of their mission statement to trash the language? Perhaps they're doing it just to get attention? I wonder how many people are refusing to buy Apple products because of the way Apple are so disrespectful to the language? Probably very, very few. ;-)
I wonder whether the grammar of Apple advertising is just as dire in the other languages in which they advertise?
http://grammartips.homestead.com/prepositions1.html
"Come and see what 2011 will be the year of"
So sad to see yet another example of dreadful English grammar exhibited by Apple marketing. ... Perhaps they're doing it just to get attention?
Marketing... to get attention? Nooo.
I wonder how many people are refusing to buy Apple products because of the way Apple are so disrespectful to the language? Probably very, very few. ;-)
I'm sure Apple are laughing all the way to the bank.
Sadly, I doubt most Americans are even aware of this poor grammar.
What bugs me is we end up troubleshooting the various software out there, noting and reporting bugs, and when we call with a tech support question, we have to pretend we are on PCs because the default response on the other end is 'we don's support Macs.'
They don't even wait till you ask your question. But we have a 100% success rate in sussing out the problem and reporting back to the vendor that it was their issue, not one of being on a Mac.
I just wish they'd get with the program and realize that more and more people are switching. Or at least drop the Mac hostility.
"Come and see what 2011 will be the year of"
Groan. So sad to see yet another example of dreadful English grammar exhibited by Apple marketing. Is it part of their mission statement to trash the language? Perhaps they're doing it just to get attention? I wonder how many people are refusing to buy Apple products because of the way Apple are so disrespectful to the language? Probably very, very few. ;-)
I wonder whether the grammar of Apple advertising is just as dire in the other languages in which they advertise?
Those who live in glass houses, should not throw stone. In other words, I would check your subject verb agreement in the next to last sentence. I will stop there. But, what does this really have to do with the article?
"Come and see what 2011 will be the year of"
Groan. So sad to see yet another example of dreadful English grammar exhibited by Apple marketing. Is it part of their mission statement to trash the language? Perhaps they're doing it just to get attention? I wonder how many people are refusing to buy Apple products because of the way Apple are so disrespectful to the language? Probably very, very few. ;-)
I wonder whether the grammar of Apple advertising is just as dire in the other languages in which they advertise?
It's marketing, and not a white paper.
Didn't Budweiser have a whole campaign based on the word "Whassup!"?
What would really bring in small businesses is E-Mail. That is Apple needs a dot Mac service more oriented towards business users. For businesses greater than one or two Apple should provide business accounts much like Google does, that is [email protected] addresses. Many small businesses would rather have a local contact to handle this for them. This would keep everything on the Apple infrastructure which is very suitable for business. The new data center could easily handle this.
Not sure how Google handles it but I know for sure that many companies require email archiving in case of an investigation. Even if you use Google to pop your corporate email server, IT still needs a copy of it, in and out.
As an ACN owner if this story is the whole picture that's great news for us! They won't support or install servers and who's going to want to pay a continual support plan after buying a brand new Mac. As long as it's with the purchase of a new one like the report states - it could be a lot worse for us ACN's
Also an ACN here. Yeah, this is not so bad. By and large, the main reason people hire ACNs is because they don't want to lug their machine back in the the Zoo, I mean, the Apple Store.
Joint Venture offers priority at the Genius Bar: <yippee>. I see no specific mention of on-site support as was previously rumored. It's only available for new purchases so no joy for the existing machines.
In my opinion, the offering of phone support is of limited usefulness and probably does not extend to non-Apple problems like Office crashing. Offering a a loaner machine during repairs might be slightly attractive to some users, but this, too, is of limited usefulness to users with a lot of special graphics applications and data on the broken machine.
So what it boils down to is $500 of extra expense on a new Mac. A few organizations, like hospitals, with bags of cash might bite and then forget about it.
Not sure how Google handles it but I know for sure that many companies require email archiving in case of an investigation. Even if you use Google to pop your corporate email server, IT still needs a copy of it, in and out.
For small businesses, the OP was right-- email is issue #1. Google doesn't do an auditableservice for free, but you can be up and running in 10 minutes, and if you need the audit trail, they have a paid service.
Apple would do well to compete here.
But, without a server, they can't really offer a solution in a box, so it is hard to see where the value comes in. Getting a $5,000 box that gives you what you need for an entry-level small office (plus workstations) would be a god-send. Having a $20k option for a 20-person company doing an upgrade and you are golden...
Hard, but not impossible.
...and for all the consultants out there worried, competing is still easy enough, you do need to spend some money on marketing and customer service though...