Jon,
I agree with you. Jobs brought the Mac back with style and innovation. As far as the "Hockey Puck" is concerned, the PC owners didn't care or even know iMacs had them. It was a frustration for Mac owners but PC owners couldn't care less about them. That's true of most of the style "flaws" that Doren pointed out.
I think Apple's biggest "failure", is that Apple doesn't have a good enterprise solution. Microsoft absconded with that through their office package and the introduction of Exchange and it's servers. If Apple really wants to take back share, it has to pounce on enterprise with a vengeance. XServers are a start - but Apple seems unsure with them.
Apple also need compelling office software solutions - maybe they can get back in with truly useful video conferencing, a professional Apple Works, and a FileMaker-based central email repository (or a more elegant scheme)? Some parts are showing up, like iCal and the ability to synchronize them. The Rendezvous printer finder is a very elegant solution that should be very useful as more printers comply with it. Apple should really be able to sell Apple enterprise solutions that require only a minimum of human support (of course IT departments won't like that; so Apple has to sell to the main company bean counters to get around IT).
Or maybe they can keep a reasonable relationship with Microsoft and get them to put Exchange back on OSX (it started on Macs along with most of the Office software).
I really believe Apple can provide a better solution for business, though, as they can build a new system that avoids the MS SW flaws.
Again, Apple can't win back market share without winning back businesses. |
