Apple whispers iPad's pros to corporate IT buyers
Apple is holding discreet meetings with IT decision makers in five cities and educating them on the uses of Apple technology, such as the iPad and associated apps, for business.
There’s some new movement on the Mac front behind closed doors.
IT executives are receiving perhaps their first-ever sales calls from Apple thanks to the success of the iPad, according to a report by Bloomberg Businessweek.
To make it easier for corporate IT buyers to buy their employees new iPhones and iPads, Apple has opened five briefing rooms in the cities of Minneapolis, London, Paris, Shanghai, and Philadelphia to present options to business leaders in a discreet setting, the report said.
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Apple launches federal integrator strategy
In November, Washington Technology reported on a program to formalize relationships with systems integrators and sell its products — chief among them, the iPad tablet computer and the iPhone — on an enterprise level in the government and commercial markets.
Apple’s government strategy coupled with this latest development could be evidence for the case that Apple may want to work with enterprise, not just consumers. The advent of the iPad and iPhone lets them do this without having to produce clunky, unsexy products.
"It was pretty slick," said Susan Maus, a Minneapolis-based online marketing consultant who recently sat in an inconspicuous room and listened to a 90-minute talk by Apple representatives about how the products could improve business. "They're really reaching out to businesses now," she told Bloomberg Businessweek. The 13 attendees were able to test out the iPads and associated business apps.
Jobs has said companies cannot concentrate on both corporate and consumer clients at the same time – and Apple has a consumer-centric model. This is perhaps the reason for the low-key presentations presented to a small audience.
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer told analysts during the company’s October earnings call that it would keep hiring corporate sales specialists and would expand its capacity to handle business customers, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. However, in the same call Jobs said that without much effort from Apple, its products were "being grabbed out of our hands" by corporate buyers, wrote Businessweek.