bMac, or Apple Invades the Enterprise
I've meant to start this thread for awhile, but now seems the perfect time with all the rumors of low cost 970s and low end boxes and/or reintroduced Cubes. I know we have threads on all these subjects, but I'm trying to tie it all together as to Apple's next big push: the enterpise market.
Apple needs enterprise customers for top and bottom line growth, not to mention mindshare and Wall St. mollification. They've already got the OS and the xServe, but what's missing is the inexpensive (yet still elegent) client machine to go head to head with Dell. It doesn't seem that anything in the current lineup is up to the task. eMac? Nuh-huh. iMac? Too expensive and consumer centric.
I propose the bMac. A cube or shuttle like enclosure that's small, silent, powerful, dead simple to deploy and administer, and most importantly affordable. You know, everything the old Cube should have been, but this time aimed directly at every desk in corporate America.
Would this machine be business only as the eMac was originally Edu only, or could you and I buy one too? Should it be upgradeable? If so, why and how much? If the specs are good enough maybe they could get away with a sealed box if it kept maintenance costs down enough. Corporations love to kick machines down the foodchain as they age. If the bMac is robust enough it would make more sense to move it to accounting or sales or to the secretarial pool rather than pay for hardware upgrades.
OK, AI, put on your black turtlenecks and give me your specs for the bMac. Here are mine to get started.
A small horizontally oriented cube-like box like this, but with a much nicer Ives design. Lose the PCI and AGP slots for even smaller and quieter operation.
1.2 GHz 970
80 GB HD
512 RAM (1GB Max)
Integrated ATi 9000 class graphics with 32 MB VRAM
ADC and DVI out for use with any display
Combo Drive (for viewing all the corporate training DVDs made on Power Macs in the design department
)
One FW 400
One FW 800
Two USB 2
Gigabit Ethernet
Airport Extreme
Mac OS X 10.3
$599 for volume purchases
Apple needs enterprise customers for top and bottom line growth, not to mention mindshare and Wall St. mollification. They've already got the OS and the xServe, but what's missing is the inexpensive (yet still elegent) client machine to go head to head with Dell. It doesn't seem that anything in the current lineup is up to the task. eMac? Nuh-huh. iMac? Too expensive and consumer centric.
I propose the bMac. A cube or shuttle like enclosure that's small, silent, powerful, dead simple to deploy and administer, and most importantly affordable. You know, everything the old Cube should have been, but this time aimed directly at every desk in corporate America.
Would this machine be business only as the eMac was originally Edu only, or could you and I buy one too? Should it be upgradeable? If so, why and how much? If the specs are good enough maybe they could get away with a sealed box if it kept maintenance costs down enough. Corporations love to kick machines down the foodchain as they age. If the bMac is robust enough it would make more sense to move it to accounting or sales or to the secretarial pool rather than pay for hardware upgrades.
OK, AI, put on your black turtlenecks and give me your specs for the bMac. Here are mine to get started.
A small horizontally oriented cube-like box like this, but with a much nicer Ives design. Lose the PCI and AGP slots for even smaller and quieter operation.
1.2 GHz 970
80 GB HD
512 RAM (1GB Max)
Integrated ATi 9000 class graphics with 32 MB VRAM
ADC and DVI out for use with any display
Combo Drive (for viewing all the corporate training DVDs made on Power Macs in the design department
)One FW 400
One FW 800
Two USB 2
Gigabit Ethernet
Airport Extreme
Mac OS X 10.3
$599 for volume purchases
Comments
The only thing that matters is COST and SPEED and business credit and mass buying programs. Apple lacks in all three areas.
First if your going to be a small percentage of the market then you have to offer something to draw people away from the main market...
What does Apple offer?
COST ? Hahahahahah yeah right. Why don't we just buy the employee's all Porches?
SPEED ? You must be joking right? And at prices more expensive than better faster hardware!
Business Programs? Mass Buying? Discounts? Hardly.
So the only advantage is OS X? Which doen't intergrate with the login stuff properly for windows on a disturbuted level?
Oh so we can save $2,000 per employee by buying a 3x faster Dell and they'll know how to use it out of the box since it's windows?
FANTASTIC.
Originally posted by inkhead
Why is it that nobody including Apple gets it? Nobody in the IT business world gives two bits about the design or the outside case.
Maybe that's because nobody's ever given it to them before.
The only thing that matters is COST and SPEED and business credit and mass buying programs. Apple lacks in all three areas.
You are right. That's the whole point of this thread though: how does Apple change these realities and perceptions in the corporate mindset? And what machine do they use to accomplish it.
I think a 970 based, sealed box with aggressive pricing and the unlimited seat liscense of OS X server is the way to go.
Originally posted by inkhead
What does Apple offer?
COST ? Hahahahahah yeah right. Why don't we just buy the employee's all Porches?
SPEED ? You must be joking right? And at prices more expensive than better faster hardware!
Business Programs? Mass Buying? Discounts? Hardly.
Just a thought. Why not make a "business only" machine that you *must* buy in bulk, say a minimum of ten systems. Indluding Office and some other business progs. Say you buy ten systems: price $5999, buy 50: $5499, buy 100: $4999. Make a decent 15" "office display" and sell it in packages of 5 to a decent price. Offer installation and training from Apple professionals. Include some sort of switcher tools. Give decent discounts on Xserves to bMac buyers. This would be more of a "business package", and may appeal more to businesses than any combination of products Apple has in the line right now. And I think the computers need to offer decent performance compared to PC-boxes, so Apple can't simply throw in a low-power G3. That would put a lot of people off, and Apple don't want to put off potential customers
Lemon Bon Bon, I know you want a decent priced headless iMac/eMac, and Apple may sell this computer to consumers but at a slightly higher price, say $599-699.
Originally posted by inkhead
So the only advantage is OS X? Which doen't intergrate with the login stuff properly for windows on a disturbuted level?
I was under the impression that OS X integrated quite well with ActiveDirectory.
"Business Bundles" are a great idea. Buy 'em in pallettes of 100. Office X pre-installed. Swap 'em out for the old noisy Dells, provide an hour of employee training and walk away.
I do think a 970 is a requirement though. If Mac Whispers is right about the price there's no reason not too. The Mac hating IT guys are going to have to be sold on this whole concept anyway, and a G4 based machine won't help that arguement.
Originally posted by Ensign Pulver
NETRO, this is the type of feedback I'm talking about.
I do think a 970 is a requirement though. If Mac Whispers is right about the price there's no reason not too. The Mac hating IT guys are going to have to be sold on this whole concept anyway, and a G4 based machine won't help that arguement.
I agree. The cpu is important. Apple should not cut down to much in this area. Do the saving on other parts instead. Use a cheap but decent graphics card, take a nice low-rice low-capasity hard-drive since most corporates have files on servers anyways, 256 mb ram, few ports, say 1 FW and 2 USB, no fancy sound outputs or built in speaker (I don't think corporates needs hundred of macs starting up with a bawawawawah). Do the important things right, and loose the unimportant ones. This is not a "digital hub" mac so to speak.
Originally posted by NETROMac
Do the important things right, and loose the unimportant ones. This is not a "digital hub" mac so to speak.
Exactly, and all the more reason to NOT make the bMac available to the general public. It must be built from the ground up for corporate desks, not kitchen tables.
Originally posted by Ensign Pulver
Exactly, and all the more reason to NOT make the bMac available to the general public. It must be built from the ground up for corporate desks, not kitchen tables.
Exactly. I think Apple also should make a new headless box, like the cube, for consumers. This box should have all the "bells and whistles" of a digital hub box. More power in the expansion and display area, and limited upgradability.
One point with the bMac is that it should NOT be a replacement mac for designers or powerusers, but for corporate drones that needs a decent working tool. More than enough power for Office and other working tools. It's not like they need the 9700 or geforceFX to do work efficiently. Need more power or upgradablility/expandability, then get a powermac, powerbook, iMac or Cube2. Offer reasonable discounts on these to if purchased together with bMac packages.
Apple pisses me off because there is no way I can convince anyone in my office to buy my department Macs. And why should they? So I can use my iPod? So my work goes slower? So we have to spend time intergrating it into our network?
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad if there was a compelling advantage. But there really are none.
Dell hands out business machines like they were $5 cigars. For our office:
$590 of hardware + $120 17' monitor is on my desk:
Pentium 4 2.0 ghz
256 MB of RAM
30 GB hard drive
64MB Video Card
Windows XP Professional
Mouse / Keyboard
Notice the important part SPEED & PRICE.
Or for $1,700 I can get an iMac that looks nice and performs like crap. Maybe my company would by me one, but when they find out it's 3x the price and not any faster....
Apple in business = joke
If apple were serious about it they would do something. You can't tell me they don't know this already.. It's been this way forever. Don't tell me the people who work for apple haven't ever walked into any other offices down there in Silicon Valley.
Don't get me wrong I love my mac, but apple has me DAMN irritated.
Apple knows this. Right now they have NO product directed against the typical office "Office-user". The iMac can be a possible solution to somebody, but I guess most companies want headless units. Some enterprises don't want to shell out for new displays every time they upgrade the hardware.
Os X login capabities has to improve too, and we'll probably see some new features on this area with panther.
If Apple is serious about getting inside corporates they will know by now that they need something different to appeal to them. A bMac would may be the solution to the whole Apple and enterprises problem, togheter with a more "corporate strength" OS.
Originally posted by inkhead
Apple in business = joke
If apple were serious about it they would do something. You can't tell me they don't know this already.. It's been this way forever. Don't tell me the people who work for apple haven't ever walked into any other offices down there in Silicon Valley.
Don't get me wrong I love my mac, but apple has me DAMN irritated.
Hey, ink. This thread is supposed to be about prospective solutions to the issues you are so upset about. Current Apple hardware doesn't cut it on corporate desktops, we get it, OK?
How 'bout some ideas on how to fix it instead of just complaining.
Why?
Originally posted by T'hain Esh Kelch
Why?
Ahhh, finally somebody asking all the right questions
Originally posted by NETROMac
Ahhh, finally somebody asking all the right questions
It took me several hours to figure out how to pronounce it!
COST ? Hahahahahah yeah right. Why don't we just buy the employee's all Porches?
being given a porch by my employer ... how to install that mother onto a first floor apartment ...
you didn't mean Porsche (http://www.porsche.de) ... did you?
Sincerely Yours
benny.design
IFApple introduces a bMac, sales could be goosed pretty good if IBM began purchasing them as their office machines. Everybody wins, IBM sells 970's to themselves, Apple finds way into the office market, IBM employees enjoy the benefits of the best operating system available.
maybe this thought is really from the parking lot outside the left field bleachers
-Craig
Yet it's a catch-22, because IT guys generally hate Macs for the same reason.
I think Kraig is right, Apple has to appeal to small businesses without much IT infrastructure if they're gonna crack the business market at all.
"What does Apple offer?
COST ? Hahahahahah yeah right. Why don't we just buy the employee's all Porches?
SPEED ? You must be joking right? And at prices more expensive than better faster hardware!
Business Programs? Mass Buying? Discounts? Hardly.
So the only advantage is OS X? Which doen't intergrate with the login stuff properly for windows on a disturbuted level?
Oh so we can save $2,000 per employee by buying a 3x faster Dell and they'll know how to use it out of the box since it's windows?
FANTASTIC."
Ouch!!! (But he's right!!!!)
If they want the 'HP' fatty financial insulator layer that comes from Enterprise sales then they've got to get serious.
Luckily for Apple, the imminent arrival of the 970 and a 'headless' Mac might just give us some hope.
Personally, I think Apple is putting the pieces in place for a run at the Enterprise market.
But Inkhead rightly points out the current holes.
How to address those holes?
Well, like aforementioned.
- Panther.
- Headless Mac.
- 970 ie more processing power.
- x86 support and/or 'play more nicely Wintel stuff'.
- Bulk discounts.
- Maybe a 'Real PC' emulation and/or bundle...'X' already has X11, a Real PC bundled emulation app for Business who have software investments...free site licenses for Mac software... Take one Mac...it runs EVERYTHING...EVIL LAUGH!!!!
- A proper iOffice suite.
- Cheaper prices.
- Business software bundles for business.
- a business Switcher Mac bundle including 'Move to Mac!'
- a 'for business'/enterprice slot in their stores? Or workshops on the big screen 'Mac for Business'.
Dunno. Just ideas. But Apple needs to get into Taiwanese component pricing soon. Make all those Mac 10% cheaper and/or better performing at those each price point. Not cheapest...but cheaper.
A headless Mac is a pre-requisite in my mind. And bundle LCD pricing with the 17 incher.
Lemon Bon Bon