The latest Business Week cover story reads Mac in the gray flannel suit and talks about how more and more corporations are now allowing their employees to use Macs in the office. Apple on the other hand has shown no interest in catering to this market.
The above article is definitely worth reading. Here are some of the key points that I thought were worth a highlight.
– While Apple is getting all this attention, Microsoft CEO agrees that Vista is still a work in progress – so what do they do – force it down the customer’s throat by saying you cannot get XP past June 30. Microsoft’s Windows marketing VP says “The thing that can best help perceptions is more and more people using Vista” – this is what I call arrogance – we know it sucks and we want to make sure that we inflict the pain on everyone we can – great – just the thing your customers need.
– Apple’s average selling price has gone up to $1526 while the cost of average PC’s has gone down from $1046 to $963 in the last three years
– Apple’s market share of the personal computer market is now on pace to hit 7%.
You can call it arrogance on Apple’s part not to cater to the corporate world, but I want to commend Jobs in understanding where he wants to take his company (consumer, consumer, consumer) and sticking to it.
This is something very hard to do for many companies. Smelling and chasing a new stream of revenue defocuses companies and finally leads to their failures or demise. Apple knows all about this – having made that mistake in the past.
But what a great situation Apple finds itself in – the student community – one of Apple’s strongest users of iPods and iPhones – now are their sales force when it comes to corporations. Would’nt you want the world to beat a path to your door?
Software Product Manager by Gopal Shenoy 