Optimistic or not, '97 is a different world than '96. While the Mac is not a player in big business (except maybe in public affairs/investor relations DTP), that does not mean that big companies are 100% NT shoe-in's and a hopeless Mac cause.
Last year for big companies the consensus was that NT was the end all. Also last year the wholesale elimination of mixed environments (DOS, 3.1, Mac) was the buzz.
But now there is much confusion over the NC and Intranet (pushed by Sun, Oracle, Cisco and IBM). Cost (and major hassle) is a major factor. This is delaying major conversions to NT. The grandiose end-all NT solutions are being replaced with more gradual ones and more outsourcing.
The NEXT deal gets Apple back in this action through the UNIX backdoor, which is a major part still of many large company MIS systems. This will also help Apple with university / gov't customers. Maybe shore up some of the few big companies, too (US West, etc). They won't get big business back, but maybe establish a beachhead to build on.
Sincerely,
Ben |
