In the past week, readers have been in some heated discussions on the following topics:
Thanks to all the readers who commented, now here's my pick for best and worst reader comments of the week:
Best: from "Guest" responding to Why Business Won't Buy Apple
Guest
commented on Sep 18, 2007 10:20:47 AM
I have been in IT for 25 years at Fortune 1-100 companies, and now do contract IT for small and medium businesses. I am amazed at the fluff in the responses. Many of you are making the expected sweeping generalizations of yesteryear of PC vs. Mac. Well, here is a view from the trenches, and in particular, from someone selling to, and supporting mixed PC and Mac customers.
1) Cost arguments are bull. If you are price sensitive, then you are probably one of two things, too big, or not paying attention to productivity value.
2) Speaking of too big, at the Enterprise, PERSONAL computers are not PERSONAL. Software install is prohibited, applications strictly vetted, USB ports glued shut, virus scanners and corporate monitors installed. Typical Enterprise PC builds no longer resemble factory. If Apple's value is about Personal creativity, Enterprise environments are anathema.
3) Apple's (absolutely) correct strategy of small incremental improvement vs. giant updates is a different rhythm for IT. This is hard to pin down, but when you do this for a living you feel it. A great example of this is tronguy's response above. He finds Garageband an "amateurish" application. He does not see a place for this program in his suite today, so he locks it out of his mind for the future, not contemplating the "liveness" factor in the program's feature set and support. Ultimately, the buying cycle of IT is just out of step with the way Apple releases its products. Someone would have to change their rhythm, and I hope to heaven Apple does not try to match the IT rhythm. That would be their death.
4) Speaking of egos, Enterprise IT is ALL about ego. Bullying vendors is part of the game. Year long sales cycles are typical at large Enterprises. To bring the point home for 3) again, by the time IT has figured out how to customize, lock down and otherwise munge a Mac, several incremental updates have changed key applications and they have to do it all over again. To close the sale, they would demand Apple change it's release schedule and policies, breaking one of the key things that make Apple successful.
5) Unix. IT do not have the same level of experience locking Unix down, and indeed, even attempting this would be crazy. What would the best practice be? Since a BSD variant lurks beneath the covers, IT is justifiably concerned about the cost in bringing their own expertise up to speed. For the back room guys, Unix is fine. But for the front lines? That's a lot of retraining and a tough sell.
6) Compatibility is not an issue if you understand what you mean. I commonly set up file shares used by both environments. Web based systems comprise an ever increasing part of IT applications, so Firefox suffices as a delivery platform. The Office Suite is available on both platforms. When people say "compatibility", perhaps it's more "my application is not available for both platforms". That can be a problem in more niche application environments. You have to play the 80/20 rule somewhere. When you hit 80%, buy a Mac and get on with life.
7) Vendor lock-in is a non-issue. We were locked in with IBM, we were locked in with MS Windows. We all survived. Get over it. All I see above are emotional arguments against lock-in, which are useless rubbish in making real business decisions. The practical issues of dealing with single source vendors have been addressed for decades. Happily, Apple is on the upswing, so you don't have the stupid IT question about whether the "vendor will be around in 7 years".
8) Service. Here, for the large enterprise, is the first point they have a right to be concerned about - for the moment. The worst thing that could happen is mass IT adoption. They'd swamp Apple service with large numbers. As with any organization, Apple would have to grow to meet the demand.
9) User training is absolutely not mentioned by anybody in this forum!!! The cost man, the cost! Simply having a reduced burden of user calls and training is worth huge amounts of gold. In my experience, I deal constantly, CONSTANTLY with Windows calls, and no Mac calls. 'Nuff said.
10) Here - more succinctly: EASE OF USE == SAVED MONEY. Lots of saved money. This is why I have more business than I can say grace over. Small businesses are sensitive to time and money, and make the Mac decision for the right reason, often for key people first and then the whole company.
The best recommendation for Apple is just to stay the course. Grow organically. Those who see perceived value in using their machines will buy them, they will come up with the needed best practices for using them, and then recommend them. This results in low cost of sales and low cost by not changing success.
Remember, numerically the Fortune 500 are just that, only 500 companies. That leaves the proverbial 90 plus percent of mom
and pop businesses out there who are a perfect match for the Mac.
Key points from the trenches again:
The number of Mac service calls is significantly lower than PC calls.
User training needs are lower.
All the business applications the user's need are available.
If Time == Money, using Mac at a small and medium business is a no-brainer.
Worst: From "Not Home" in response to 7 Reasons Why Linux Won't Succeed On The Desktop
Not home
Posted: Sep 20, 2007 12:53 AM
Wolfie: You're wrong. But before I dive into the seven reasons you're wrong, let's examine:
Pitiful Market Share
InformationWeek used to be a valued source on all things IT and technology related to computers. But somewhere along the line, they sold out. Yes, it's hard to believe but IW is now a sycophant to all things Gates / Ballmers / and Microsnake. Sad. Really sad to see a good rag go bad.
Now, onto seven reasons your position sucks so bad that NASA has somewhere to fly!
1. Microsnake Forced every OEM to pay for windows for every machine sold, whether or not it had windows installed.
2. Microsnake was convicted in Federal Court of Illegal Monopoly practices.
3. Microsnake Lost its appeal in Federal Appeals. Because they are guilty.
4. Microsnake was convicted of Illegal Monopoly practices in the Court of First Instance in the EC.
5. Microsnake Lost their appeal in the EU because they are guilty.
6. Microsnake has never invented anything. Ever. They have bought, stolen, or copied their entire product line.
7. No Microsnake product has ever lived up to its promise or supported the hype given it.
You know all this, its a matter of record. Shall I go on?
8. Microsnake has begun to implode. Dancing Monkey Boy Ballmers couldn't manage his way out of a wet condom.
9. With Gates and his Reality Distortion Field now gone from the scene Microsnake will continue to market products like Origami, Zune and Vista.
10. More and more business' are realizing that Billion$ are wasted reformatting, reinstalling and the National Holiday; Patch Tuesday. Why? Because Microsnake makes sh:t.
11. Our company is 100% Microsnake FREE. It can be done. After a little detox you, too, can be Microsnake FREE.
Imagine. FREE of Blue screen death. WGA lockout. OGA verification failures. FREE to get your work done. Meet deadlines. Be creative. Do business--YOUR business without sucking up to Lord Ballmers and the other APES at Redmond.
Try it: Linux, MacOS, Unix
Try it. There are options. You can survive without your daily dose of Microsnake poison.
