Apple's enterprise business ballooned 40% to reach $25B in fiscal 2015
During Apple's quarterly earnings conference call on Tuesday, CEO Tim Cook said the company's enterprise operations hit a high-water mark of $25 billion over the past 12 months, up 40 percent compared to last year.
Speaking on opportunity for future growth going into 2016, Cook rattled off a few key product lines like iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch before landing on enterprise, a often overlooked line item on Apple's quarterly filing. Enterprise markets accounted for about $25 billion in revenue for fiscal 2015 and Cook expects the sector to be a "major growth vector" moving forward.
"The enterprise business is not to be underestimated," Cook said. "I doubt very many people knew that we have a $25 billion enterprise business that we've quietly built in not too many years. Our penetration is low, but we have significant action going on to really deepen that."
Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross later asked how Apple intends to better capitalize on the needs of businesses, noting the company has a comparatively small dedicated enterprise sales force. Cook said not to expect any major changes in policy, saying Apple will lean on its 75 ability partners for that purpose, firms that already have sizable direct sales teams. In addition to direct sales, Cook mentioned a "huge" worldwide indirect channel from which businesses can purchase Apple products.
"We'll clearly continue adding some people, more on the engineering side, but I don't envision having a large direct sales force," he said.
In August, Apple announced a partnership with Cisco that has the two companies working to optimize corporate networks for iPhone, iPad and iOS apps. That's on top of a groundbreaking tie-up with IBM and its MobileFirst for iOS initiative, which itself spawned a backend partnership with cloud storage and collaboration company Box.
Cook is expectedly upbeat on Apple's potential to disrupt a decidedly Windows-based market. Some companies are already seeing the benefits of switching to Mac and iOS, as Cook said IBM saves some $270 per Mac in support costs when compared to Windows machines. IBM has distributed more than 30,000 Macs to employees after activating a MacBook purchase program for employees in July, intending to ultimately dole out up to 200,000 units.
Speaking on opportunity for future growth going into 2016, Cook rattled off a few key product lines like iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch before landing on enterprise, a often overlooked line item on Apple's quarterly filing. Enterprise markets accounted for about $25 billion in revenue for fiscal 2015 and Cook expects the sector to be a "major growth vector" moving forward.
"The enterprise business is not to be underestimated," Cook said. "I doubt very many people knew that we have a $25 billion enterprise business that we've quietly built in not too many years. Our penetration is low, but we have significant action going on to really deepen that."
Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross later asked how Apple intends to better capitalize on the needs of businesses, noting the company has a comparatively small dedicated enterprise sales force. Cook said not to expect any major changes in policy, saying Apple will lean on its 75 ability partners for that purpose, firms that already have sizable direct sales teams. In addition to direct sales, Cook mentioned a "huge" worldwide indirect channel from which businesses can purchase Apple products.
"We'll clearly continue adding some people, more on the engineering side, but I don't envision having a large direct sales force," he said.
In August, Apple announced a partnership with Cisco that has the two companies working to optimize corporate networks for iPhone, iPad and iOS apps. That's on top of a groundbreaking tie-up with IBM and its MobileFirst for iOS initiative, which itself spawned a backend partnership with cloud storage and collaboration company Box.
Cook is expectedly upbeat on Apple's potential to disrupt a decidedly Windows-based market. Some companies are already seeing the benefits of switching to Mac and iOS, as Cook said IBM saves some $270 per Mac in support costs when compared to Windows machines. IBM has distributed more than 30,000 Macs to employees after activating a MacBook purchase program for employees in July, intending to ultimately dole out up to 200,000 units.
Comments
The enterprise is not our customer.
Steve Jobs
Just wow! So good to hear. It's a far cry from the days Apple ][s were shut out by IBM when they launched the first PC.
Now they're being ushered IN to the enterprise by IBM Sales forces...
Just like Brit rocker Stevie Winwood put it in song:
"... back in the high life again, all the doors I closed one time will open up again..."
Apple is absolutely killing it in enterprise. Was at a tech conference today and there was a Cisco session, the Cisco speaker spent 80% of his time at the podium basically gushing about iOS devices and how optimized they are for their networks. I bet he sold a shitload to the crowd.
With the iPad Pro, and further IBM collaboration and others, this is only going to gain momentum.
Apple is absolutely killing it in enterprise. Was at a tech conference today and there was a Cisco session, the Cisco speaker spent 80% of his time at the podium basically gushing about iOS devices and how optimized they are for their networks. I bet he sold a shitload to the crowd.
With the iPad Pro, and further IBM collaboration and others, this is only going to gain momentum.
Yup. It was great seeing the partnership being announced with Cisco a couple months back. It also puts into perspective the craziness with the iPad rollout into LAUSD. It shows how dysfunctional the district is. I live in LA and know a lot of folks in the LAUSD. They have never said anything good about the way things operate.
Apple is absolutely killing it in enterprise. Was at a tech conference today and there was a Cisco session, the Cisco speaker spent 80% of his time at the podium basically gushing about iOS devices and how optimized they are for their networks. I bet he sold a shitload to the crowd.
With the iPad Pro, and further IBM collaboration and others, this is only going to gain momentum.
And I think this is the real reason MS is marketing the Turdface tablet the way it has , its not really targeted at consumers at all me thinks but more at the Enterprise to stop the bleeding, Haven't see any news about traction though. Obviously the turd face is not competing at the consumer price point its much too expensive for that, but as a high end device for the Enterprise. Of course its a total failure there so far.
I'll let you in on a secret. When we merged with Apple everyone at NeXT, including Steve, were talking about developing CPUs designs to 32 processor systems for the Enterprise. When Steve realized how screwed up and little capital was left [3 Months to be precise] he streamlined everything and hit the iMac out of the park.
Steve would have eventually returned to the Enterprise.
However, this is not remotely the same approach that we did at NeXT. This is IBM driving the enterprise, via iOS and Apple partnering on development, behind the scenes, but not out front making Apple an enterprise solutions corporation. This is IBM as an Enterpise Services corporation partnering with Apple to develop custom iOS and OS X solutions for a massive pool of pre-existing IBM contracts and partners to help break into new markets for IBM and Apple.
Apple will continue to primarily focus on the Consumer and let their hardware designs be agnostic when it comes to client-side hardware, while IBM drives the heavily backend lifting.
The IT department will have its vengeance on the hipsters that have gained ascendency for themselves and other users since 2007. The IT empire will strike back and take purchasing decisions back to where it belongs. With Microsoft Certified Technicians.
Apple and Enterprise are like two people who occasionally hook up only to later want nothing to do with each other, then eventually hook up again and the cycle repeats.
Hey Apple, you want to help those of us supporting you in the enterprise? Bring back the fucking Xserve for a start.
[IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/64741/width/500/height/1000[/IMG]
I worked for IBM in the 1960s -- when they proudly announced that they had become a $25 Billion company ...
Oh wait, I mean the "one trick pony."/s
The IT department will have its vengeance on the hipsters that have gained ascendency for themselves and other users since 2007. The IT empire will strike back and take purchasing decisions back to where it belongs. With Microsoft Certified Technicians.
"You can have a Mac as long as it runs only Windows - best of both worlds".
The enterprise is not our customer.
Steve Jobs
What Steve Jobs really meant:
The enterprise is not our primary customer.
That's why Apple partnered with IBM to provide enterprise-grade and enterprise-designed services and backend integrated with the Apple software on Apple hardware. Like someone else said, IBM does the heavy lifting for enterprise and all Apple has to do is sell its hardware to the enterprise without sacrificing any focus on its primary customer: the individual consumer.
What Steve Jobs really meant:
The enterprise is not our primary customer.
That's why Apple partnered with IBM to provide enterprise-grade and enterprise-designed services and backend integrated with the Apple software on Apple hardware. Like someone else said, IBM does the heavy lifting for enterprise and all Apple has to do is sell its hardware to the enterprise without sacrificing any focus on its primary customer: the individual consumer.
Also, the business devices and consumer devices are now much closer than they've ever been.
Before, PC's needed a long integration process with a huge hodgepodge of legacy devices leading to a nightmare of costs and bad results.
So, hardware that came into the enterprise had to be bland, uniform come from special channels, with special partners and expensive consulting.
These days, things are way more streamlined, consumer devices like Apple can easily integrate in the enterprise easily. Consulting is still there but more focused on the applictation than making basic things work.
Apple's iPhone in Business page: http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/
Customer profiles for iPhone in Business: http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/in-action/
IT resources for iPhone in Business: http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/it/
Let's see what's available on Apple's Mac in Business page: http://www.apple.com/business/mac/
There is a Buy button
With the growing awareness that good UX isn't just a nice to have but a key driver in project and business effectiveness, Apple will continue to grow incredibly quickly.