Selling Big Business On The Iphone
Jun 21st, 2008 | By admin | Category: BusinessSteve Jobs has won over legions of new customers since he returned to Apple, but one key group has stubbornly eluded him: big business.
The reason isn’t a mystery. Apple’s mercurial CEO decided a decade ago that corporate IT departments weren’t worth the trouble. Though they buy tech gear by the truckload, when it comes to computers they often favor stripped-down, predictable technology - the stuff Jobs finds boring. Rather than chase that business, he has courted upscale consumers with innovative devices like the iMac and iPod that are as fashionable as they are functional. It’s hard to argue with the results: Apple stock is up more than 2,000 percent in the last 10 years.
But now as Jobs seeks to turbocharge sales of the 3G iPhone, he’ll have no choice but to embrace the corporate stiffs. That’s because while Apple’s computer and iPod sales are healthy, analysts believe the popular smartphone has the most growth potential - and business buyers could be the key to its success.
With its strong brand and balance sheet, experts say now might be the perfect time to try. But the real question is whether Apple is willing to put the money and time into the humdrum work of treating businesses like first-class customers.
Mark Tauschek, an analyst with Info-Tech Research Group, notes that though business buyers make up only 30 percent of phone users, they spend the most money. “To reach these lofty goals they have to make the leap to enterprise sales,” he says. “That’s where most of the pickup is.”
There are already signs Apple is warming to businesses. The latest version of the iPhone, which is due to go on sale July 11, doesn’t come in retail-friendly candy colors; instead, it’s packed with features right off an IT manager’s wish list: tighter security, support for Microsoft Exchange and Office, and software tools that let businesses roll their own custom applications, to name a few.
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