I would agree. I've been a PC user for ages and I just recently purchased an iMac 20" and I have no intention of going back. In the process, I'm on a mission to convert all I can to this platform. Grassroots!

I would take advice from Gartner with a heavy dose of salt. Gartner recommended outsourcing and now companies are finding out what a disaster that was. Gartner recommended virtualization as a means of saving money in the data center and companies are finding out that hardware costs were not as big factor as Gartner led them to believe.

"There, there Apple: be a good little boy and stay in your own sandbox.

"Don't scare people with your silly ideas."

Gartner was almost a 100% Mac company in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

True enough concerning IT, but Apple should target Leopard against Vista in the consumer market. This transition to new computers in the home is a prime opportunity for Apple, especially if a Mac can run Vista.

If they are not now-- that doesn't speak well to their intelligence, does it?

This appears to be Jobs' plan as well. Of course he could surprise us; but Leopard may have some features that get attention without any of Apple's marketing. It appears that Apple really doesn't want to expand in the area of corporate support and marketing. that may just counterweight the creative engineering that makes Apple different. We don't want another Microsoft on our hands!

Commentator asked him point blank if this wasn't just a little TOO reminiscent of Mac OS X. His response was priceless.

"We're way ahead. Especially with Media Center and the remote."

He then went on to show all the components and hardware that they have partnered with. It was a veritable "system" bigger than my stereo.

I immediately thought of AppleTV and it's one little box.

Yeah. They're way ahead alright.

. . . if you look at their strategy, that is pretty much exactly what they're doing. The TV ads imply it's a consumer machine, almost an 'anti-work' machine - when in fact it's a perfectly capable platform for business tasks.

There's also the fact that in the enterprise Apple would be going up against Novell, IBM, Oracle and Red Hat, who are all pushing Linux alternatives (that will let companies re-use existing hardware). Java and .NET are also the two main enterprise development platforms.

Where you can see Apple making an effort is in targeting small development shops - the Teams app they're building, Ruby On Rails support in Leopard Server, etc - basically the kind of companies that will be delivering web based solutions, maybe using a lot of Adobe/Macromedia tools too, where it doesn't matter what tools they use.

I think they're right on the viral thing though - I want our sales and marketing team to be using Keynote right now.

"who are firmly committed to the Vista upgrade process over the next 18 months".

Not necessarily committed. Look at the polls and most businesses are NOT going to Vista for a long time. To many outstanding issues. No virus protection, video and sound drivers, and compatable software to name a few.
Apple won't push now until Leopard comes out and makes Vista look as old as it really is. 5 years in the past.

"The reason is that, given that Windows is so dominant in business and given that businesses have made the commitment to engage in the migration, Apple's Leopard message would fall largely on highly stressed and deaf ears."

This is nonsense. At this point VERY FEW businesses have "made the commitment" to upgrade to Vista- I would conservatively guess that half of existing business computers would need upgrades of some kind- if not new computers entirely- to run it.

So if a huge number of businesses are facing the challenge of new hardware purchases PLUS a major OS migration.........

Perfect time to dangle Leopard in front of their faces.

Anyone who thinks the Vista upgrade is a no-brainer, for either businesses or consumers, is an idiot. A lot of people will be buying this and discovering that it doesn't work on their computers.

Good point. Businesses, however, are just not committed to jump in in a hurry. Changing systems from one OS to another is a big leap for most businesses.

Apple's strategy is a good one. Go after consumers, small business, education, and certain specialty markets like the creative market.

Apple should not be pushing Leopard right now because 1) it is not ready, 2) competition with news concerning Vista will detract from Leopard news, and 3) Leopards new features probably concern products not yet shipping, namely the iPhone, and Apple TV.

Quote

horvatic wrote:
"who are firmly committed to the Vista upgrade process over the next 18 months".

Not necessarily committed. Look at the polls and most businesses are NOT going to Vista for a long time. To many outstanding issues. No virus protection, video and sound drivers, and compatable software to name a few.
Apple won't push now until Leopard comes out and makes Vista look as old as it really is. 5 years in the past.

Truth is businesses do not like untested OSes. Accordingly, businesses likely will frown on both Vista and Leopard at least in the short term.

There is, I think, a large difference between a "commitment to the migration" and having Vista preloaded on all the new machines businesses will be purchasing. Commitment is not the same thing as a lack of options. Besides, nothing is stopping these businesses from nuking Vista and reinstalling an existing site license of XP (or 2000 for that matter, MANY businesses are still on 2000) until all the Vista kinks are worked out. But hey, it's good spin.

[quote="Tiger"]Commentator asked him point blank if this wasn't just a little TOO reminiscent of Mac OS X. His response was priceless.

"We're way ahead. Especially with Media Center and the remote."

He then went on to show all the components and hardware that they have partnered with. It was a veritable "system" bigger than my stereo.


And Steve Jobs is accused of having a "reality distortion field" ??!

The Gartner analysis doesn't make much sense. A lot of existing corporate PCs simply won't run Vista effectively. Many companies need to upgrade their hardware before updating their software. This is the perfect opportunity for Apple to really push the Mac as the best hardware to run Vista and OS X. No other vendor can offer that kind of flexibility.

Quote

Guest wrote:
[quote="Tiger"]Commentator asked him point blank if this wasn't just a little TOO reminiscent of Mac OS X. His response was priceless.

"We're way ahead. Especially with Media Center and the remote."

He then went on to show all the components and hardware that they have partnered with. It was a veritable "system" bigger than my stereo.


And Steve Jobs is accused of having a "reality distortion field" ??!

Yes, Gates has one, too. Except his is turned to reverse! (Distorts HIS reality, not the audience!)

Quote

jbruni wrote:
Gartner recommended virtualization as a means of saving money in the data center and companies are finding out that hardware costs were not as big factor as Gartner led them to believe.

Virtualization in the data center has nothing to do with OS X, but rather allowing single powerful servers to run multiple copies of something like Windows 2003 Server, etc. I don't see companies using virtualization to let their employees use macs and run windows when needed. I know where I work this will never ever even be considered, let alone implemented.

Quote

Guest wrote:
The Gartner analysis doesn't make much sense. A lot of existing corporate PCs simply won't run Vista effectively. Many companies need to upgrade their hardware before updating their software. This is the perfect opportunity for Apple to really push the Mac as the best hardware to run Vista and OS X. No other vendor can offer that kind of flexibility.

I'm not sure what everyone's background is here, but does anyone else work in fortune 500 companies? They don't care about the flexibility to run OS X, they are never going to do it as far as they are concerned.

I too would love to quit having to use windows of any variety at work, but it's just not going to happen in at least the next 10 years, probably longer, actually probably never. They could possible move to macs running windows natively (not using virtualization) but there's no reason for them to not get the slightly cheaper PC's they are using already.

I see why everyone here including myself would like it, but I honestly see no reason for companies entrenched in windows running custom windows apps to do anything besides eventually move to Vista. They are testing it where I work with that end in mind now.

Quote

to more rapidly build share involves significantly higher risk

Higher risk of what? If companies really feel they have no choice but to buy new hardware and a new OS, what is so risky about encouraging them to shop around before buying?

Do your homework; Intel Macs are price competitive if not cheaper when compared with PC brands/models. Hardware price is no longer and issue with a Mac. Do you want to discuss OS price between Vista and OSX?

It would seem to me that Apple is already in the plan outlined. Apple has been marketing themselves as a consumer electronics company since the first iPod. With the advent of the Intel Macs, with their dual boot capability, the push into the cconsumer market is stronger than ever. Dual boot is not aimed at businesses, but rather the home user, who is being told they can have all the ultra-coolness of Apples iLife, the intergrated ease of running MP3 player, photo albums, home movie editing, and even music composition, and NOW it can even be fully compatible with any work you have to bring home from the office!! All on ONE machine!

I also believe this is going to eventually start to affect business decisions. More and more we see people working primarily from their homes or using their personal computers instead of the office computers. This trend has increased dramatically as laptops are now available that seriously compete with desktops in ability.

For a long time now, the business place has been a strong if not primary factor in the decision of which home computer to purchase. I believe in the coming years we will start to see this trend reverse itself, as the home workers start to demand their business IT dept. support what they want to use at home. With Macs starting to make a significant infiltration into the home computing market, this trend will start to put pressure on businesses to support Macintosh, which in turn will increase awareness (not to mention capability and understanding) of Macs and OS X in the IT depts.; all without Apple needing to do anything other than market themselves as the cool consumer electronics company.