Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: We Make DIY Upgrading Easy! Maximize your Apple MacBook / MacBook Pro. Up to 8.0GB Memory, up to 1.0TB HD & More. Easy Guide + Free, Detailed Installation Videos. Click here

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Apple and the Enterprise: Ignoring the Market or Biding Their Time?

- 2006.02.16

A Macworld editorial that ran shortly after January's Macworld Expo suggested that Apple is no longer really interested in breaking into the enterprise market.

Apple's recent successes in the consumer market with the iPod, the iLife apps, and the iMac (both G5 and Core Duo), it's apparent that's where their bread is buttered right now. As someone whose been along for the ride with Apple for a long time - including the grim Spindler/Amelio era in the 1990s - I couldn't be happier about this.

It's really cool to see five or six Macs and an iPod or two in Amazon's Top 10 best-selling consumer electronics list. Nearly all mainstream tech writers now praise the Mac for home use, and it's nice to hear Windows-using colleagues considering picking up a Mac for the house.

But as someone who works with Macs in an enterprise environment, it really bothers me to think that Apple is only peripherally interested in this arena. What enterprise products Apple does offer are truly outstanding products - and a great bargain in comparison to comparable Windows systems.

Mac OS X Server is an incredible bargain at US$999 for unlimited clients. Microsoft charges more for just the server OS, and then you have to pay for each client. The fact that Mac OS X Server is infinitely easier to set up and maintain than Windows Server 2003 is just icing on the cake.

Xserve G5

When you consider that the unlimited client server comes with the Xserve at US$2,999 and US$3,999, that makes the Xserve an incredible bargain in the 1U server arena.

Xserve RAID is perhaps Apple's best kept secret. The price per gigabyte on this massive storage system is among the most competitive you'll find.

What bothers me most about the whole Macworld editorial is that it's pretty much right on target. Apple's made incredible inroads in the consumer market and is only gaining momentum where that's concerned.

The corporate products are there for those who want them, but there doesn't seem to be any big push to gain any enterprise market share.

The Macworld editorial asks, "Is it too far-fetched to imagine that the titans of high tech are enviously eyeing the money to be made from millions of consumer customers, rather than thousands of enterprise ones?"

I'm going to hope they're just holding off until Intel Xserves are ready and then really ramp up the enterprise efforts. Just as it took a few years after the "Switch" campaign to really see a bump in consumer market share, it will take time and persistence to break into the business markets.

Can the iPod halo effect reach all the way to the server room? You might try buying your company's CEO an iPod just to find out.

Recent Plays Well with Others articles

End of G4 models points to unprecedented value for used G4 Macs, 06.02. The PowerPC G4 may no longer have a place in Apple's product line, but that's a far cry from saying G4-based Macs are obsolete. If anything, there value is going to increase.
X11: Your window for using Unix apps on the Mac, 05.17. Mac OS X is a Unix variant. X11 is the tool that lets you access Unix applications using a graphical interface with mouse support.
6 extensions to make Firefox even better, 03.29. Improve Firefox with everything from web developer tools to nuking unwanted ads, from faster page loads to knowing the weather.
Intel Mac mini confounds market with higher price, 03.23. After the raging success of the $499 Mac mini, why did Apple feel a need to move away from the entry-level market by making the Intel Mac mini more expensive?
More in the Plays Well with Others index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 15" MacBook Pro Core Duo, Jan. 2006 - The first Intel-based MacBook launched at 1.83-2.0 GHz, had several teething problems.
Group of the Day: System 6 is the email list for those who choose System 6.
November 21 in LEM history: 00: OS upgrades, downgrades - AltiVec vs. Pentium III - 01: Saved by the clones - Computer of the future - 02: Apple Education: Let's get to it - 03: Panther lets Macs and PCs work together, - Lombard SCSI bug - 05: 3 survivors from the 1970s - Real world battery life inadequate - Windows to Mac file transfer with Zip disks - $99 alternative to Microsoft Office - 06: Parallels 1.0 far more polished than beta
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best eMac Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz Combo, $100; SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 GHz Combo, $119; SD, $319; 1.42 GHz Combo, $289; SD, $498.
Best Mac OS X 10.6 and Mac Box Set Deals, 11.18. "Snow Leopard", single user, $25; 5 users, $45; Mac Box Set, single user, $139; 5 users, $180; Server, $414. Shipping included.
Best Xserve Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $649; 2.3 dual G5, $795; 3.0 4-core Xeon, $1,899; refurb 2.26 4-core, $2,499; new, $2,888; refurb 8-core, $2,999; new, $3,449; more.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.17. Used 1.83 GHz, $750; 2.16, $800; 2.33, $900; refurb 2.4, $1,299; 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,899; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.17. Used 400 MHz, $50; 933 MHz, $80; 500 dual, $60; 867 dual, $90; 1 GHz dual, $150; 1.25 GHz dual, $225; 1.42 GHz, $499.
Best Mac OS X 10.5 Deals, 11.17. "Leopard" upgrade, $80; single user license, $135; 5 users, $173; Mac Box Set, 5 users, $230; Server, 10 users, $340; unlimited, $850. Shipping included.
Best Mac mini Deals, 11.16. Used 1.42 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.66 GHz Core Solo, $419; 2.0 Core 2, $450; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $769; Server, $990.
Best iBook G4 Deals, 11.16. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $210; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz, $479; SuperDrive, $498.
Best iPod shuffle Deals, 11.16. Used 1 GB, $35; 4 GB, $65; refurb 1 GB, $39; 2 GB, $59; new 2 GB, $55, 4 GB, $75. New and refurb prices include shipping.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Plays Well with Others articles copyright ©2005-06 by Leaman Crews. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.