I think that now is a good time for Apple to look around at what is going on in the Mac world and to set up teams (or Divisions) to provide support for these areas. Medicine has a huge potential, as does super-computing, and Apple's potential is increased if there are teams in place, ready to go.

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kenaustus wrote:
I think that now is a good time for Apple to look around at what is going on in the Mac world and to set up teams (or Divisions) to provide support for these areas. Medicine has a huge potential, as does super-computing, and Apple's potential is increased if there are teams in place, ready to go.

Agree. Somehow SJ don't seem to put much priority on enterprise. He seems more concerned with creative professionals, consumers and telcos. Apple is missing a lot of opportunities.

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Mace wrote:
[Agree. Somehow SJ don't seem to put much priority on enterprise. He seems more concerned with creative professionals, consumers and telcos. Apple is missing a lot of opportunities.

Absolutely! Besides games, the two major software categories that are nearly non-existant on Macs are general enterprise software for medium-sized businesses and institutions (human resources, logistics, enterprise accounting, inventory control, quality control, sales management, etc.) and vertical market software, specialized software to support a particular business or industry. The doctors' software above is a good example of vertical market software. Others would be auto body shop cost estimation, construction cost estimation & project management, rental real estate management, etc. I'm not talking about high-end tools for big companies (e.g., aerospace CAD/CAM systems) but tools that could be sold to literally thousands of businesses. Some of the creative industries are already well-served by Mac software--audio & video recording, editing, and production; graphic design & printing; even creative writing (scriptwriting, novels, etc., through "non-linear" word processors capable of output in appropriate formats).

One group that seemed to take to the Mac early on was law firms. They were early users of networks and file servers among smaller businesses, where a mainframe was out of the question. (Early laser printers also helped: any business whose output is printed documents will gain a lot from high-speed, high-resolution printers. A friend was an independent computer consultant in Southern California. Much of her business was with law firms running Mac-based networks--in the early '90s! I went with her on an emergency repair visit to a law firm in 1993. One of their *PCs* had gone belly-up when they shifted office equipment around. Every other computer in the office was a Mac. They used the PC for accounting, as they couldn't find a good Mac-based accounting program at the time.

I think that Apple should agressively support development of enterprise and vertical market software. Grants to innovative developers would be a major first step.

There are two problems then. Apple is not in good financial health and internally, no one is well verse with enterprise. Now, Apple is very strong financially and there has one guy, Tim Cook, who know a bit about enterprise.

What Apple needs to do is to set up an enterprise division to tackle this market. I vaguely recall reading that Apple had set up a small enterprise sale team but that is not enough. Apple needs something like the Retail division for the enterprise. Let's hope Apple will get into this soon.