In the last five years, the Mac has returned from the brink of
extinction to become not only relevant, but to flourish. Developers are
flocking back to the Apple platform, and the Mac is back on the radar
screen of book publishers. However, there are still some Windows and
Unix programs for which there is no Mac equivalent.
In order to make the leap to the next level, the
enterprise,* Apple must encourage or
facilitate development of some crucial industrial-grade
applications.
Here is my open letter to the CEO on this subject:
Apple
Att'n.: Steve Jobs, CEO
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
Re: Apple Market Opportunities
Dear Steve:
Thank you again for the wonderful meal last Friday evening. Kay and
I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to your home. Melinda is a wonderful
cook. We are planning a cookout next Saturday and hope you and your
family will be able to join us. Don't forget to bring your Rook cards -
I want a chance to prove that my poor showing Friday was indeed a
fluke!
On a business note, I have been thinking about some markets in which
Apple has little or no presence. Several of these areas represent a
tremendous opportunity for the company. With the maturation of
OS X, Apple is now strategically positioned to take advantage of
these opportunities.
A simple, easy to use email server and firewall could help Apple
make inroads into the server market of small and mid-size businesses. A
great example of such an email server is MailGate. While this is a fine product,
it only runs on Windows, and its stability is therefore impaired by the
underlying OS.
The BSD Unix core of OS X offers a built-in personal firewall, and
products like BrickHouse
make it easily configureable. However, an enterprise-class firewall
such as CheckPoint or Novell BorderManager is needed. Since CheckPoint
runs on Unix, I would think it might be worth approaching that company
about a port to OS X. Put the Mac GUI on top of it and you would
have yourself a sure-fire winner!
It seems that every company is investing in, or at least exploring,
enterprise management integrated software such as PeopleSoft. For the
Mac to gain acceptance in the large corporate environments, you really
need to be able to point to a solid ERP package that runs natively on
the Apple platform.
There is also a large untapped market in the banking, credit union,
and service bureau sector. Banks and credit unions generally have a
back-office application which keeps track of all deposits, loans,
credit card information, and anything else concerning their customers'
accounts. This system is accessed by tellers every time they cash a
check or accept a deposit, by loan officers when they make a loan, by
customer service representatives when looking up account information,
and in hundreds more ways every day. Often smaller banks will utilize a
service bureau for these functions rather than attempting to manage
such a system in-house. Some companies currently making the software
and/or offering the service include Bisys, FiServ, Harland, Captiva and
Summit Information Systems.
In the evening, checks, deposit tickets, and other paper items are
fed through a high-speed scanner, imaged, and the information keyed
into the accounts. Depending on the sophistication of the application,
a great deal of this can be automated. Believe it or not, but there are
actually vendors who sell such a solution that relies on a Microsoft
SQL server to store and retrieve information! I wonder how many bank
customers would sleep as soundly at night if they knew their private
financial information was being stored on such an unstable and unsecure
platform.
For applications that rely heavily on scanning and imaging, and for
which stability and reliability is a necessity, I would think that Mac
OS X would be a natural fit. Apple should investigate encouraging
or facilitating the porting of some of these applications to the Mac,
or even Xserve. Perhaps you might wind
up in a joint venture - or even going it alone to develop the programs
yourself. When calculating return on investment, remember that
converting even one mid-size bank to the Mac would mean a hardware
order in the thousands or even tens of thousands.
One area which I believe can come off of this list is the corporate
accounting program. We have all lamented Intuit's decision to stop
developing QuickBooks for the Macintosh. However, with MYOB's
outstanding Account Edge and related products, this area appears well
represented. One day soon we may even say, "Intuit who?"
Well, I'm sure I 've given you more than enough to think about for
now. Hope to see you Saturday - and don't forget the Rook cards!
Sincerely
Steve Watkins 
* I am speaking of the corporate enterprise, not the
Enterprise of Captains Archer, Kirk or Picard. It has long been
accepted that all Star Trek computers are manufactured by Apple, which
will be thriving in the 23rd century after perfecting the ultimate
human interface device: a FireWire neural connection direct with the
brain, available at the Apple store for $99.95.
