Arguably Apple jumped into the rapidly evolving Apple device management space when it introduced Apple Business Essentials this week. But what do people in the industry think of the company's early days?
Jamf CEO welcomes the opportunity
"When Apple innovates, Jamf celebrates," Jamf CEO Dean Hager said of Apple Business Essentials. "We believe this long-awaited announcement is great news and provides Jamf with a great opportunity."
Analyst Horace Dediu points out that the target market is in fact around 212 million companies worldwide, of which around 31 million are in the United States alone. Most of these small entities manage their IT in a way that is more like consumer markets than businesses, says Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies.
Milanesi believes that Apple's entry into the market may be a problem for Apple's MDM providers like Jamf, but sees opportunities for them to improve Apple's core offering in other ways. This is also what Hager thinks.
Jamf, who announced an impressive set of third-quarter results on November 11, has always existed alongside Apple. Hager has noticed multiple times over the past decade when industry observers thought Apple's measures could hurt his business:
Closing the gap
Hager argues that in each of these cases, Jamf's business has grown in an effort to bridge the gap between Apple's offerings and the sometimes more specialized needs of corporate customers.
Speaking on the tax appeal, Hager shared information on larger clients, some of whom have switched to Macs thanks to Apple's M1 chips. These examples also included large-scale deployments, such as 100.000 devices used in the airline industry and iPads used in SpaceX's recent space flight.
Arguably, these implementations represent more specialized requirements that become typical for businesses once they pass a certain level and require more complex solutions than those provided by Apple, at least currently.
Hager also believes that his company's growing portfolio of products focused on security and education gives it additional ammunition to help companies use Apple products. Jamf has also developed market-proven solutions for contactless deployment, support for Microsoft Azure, and more.
It was no surprise
Apple's decision was not a huge surprise. The company was supposed to introduce something of this nature since it acquired the smallest MDM provider, Fleetsmith, in 2020.
Apple had to improve its business management offering, Hager argued. Business users needed an entry-level tool, and Apple needed a level playing field with other solutions for companies of this size.
The company's current Apple Business Manager can be seen as a bit too complex for small businesses, he said. Apple Business Essentials will make things easier, which should help further accelerate the adoption of Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Apple TV by small businesses.
Apple's move also puts it on par with the Surface and Chromebook when it comes to remote wiping of corporate data. Hager cited (but did not share) Jamf's first-hand data showing that some small businesses are reluctant to migrate to Apple systems due to challenges like this.
"These problems had to be solved," he said. “This will raise Apple's profile in business. Apple's weakest point in business has always been for small businesses that just want to get started.
Addigy sees an opportunity too
Addigy CEO Jason Dettbarn also seems positive about Apple's move. "This announcement demonstrates Apple's commitment to Apple at work and a significant investment in the robustness of the MDM protocol for Apple MDM providers like Addigy," he said. Business Essentials "is a great starting point for customers to adopt Apple" and then move on to more sophisticated systems when they need them.
Without a doubt, Apple is coming to market at a crucial time.
Lead from below
The shift to hybrid work has put employee options even higher on an agenda where most new hires now prefer Macs. This has led to significant investments in Macs for business. IDC says that in the third quarter, Apple shipped more Macs than in any quarter in history with a growth rate twice that of the industry. This is a sustained trend that makes the Mac the fastest-growing computer in seven quarters, a growth rate roughly twice that of the industry.
In the future, nothing has changed, Hager said.
"We're going to close the gap between what Apple builds and what the business needs," he said. “We see Apple Business Essentials customers as a new market for new and upcoming small businesses, and we'll make sure our additional products sell well within that base and add additional value. We will pave the way for more robust and scalable solutions.
While Apple's initiatives help drive the continued growth of its platforms in enterprise markets, business users are now enjoying a feast of integration vendors capable of supporting this migration, with Apple supporting smaller operations and larger partners like Jamf. , Addigy or SAP, which help support platforms that companies had almost no market share 10 years ago.
Things have changed since 2010.
"I don't think you can be a credible enterprise software provider if you are not part of the Apple ecosystem today," says Jeetu Patel, Cisco general manager and executive vice president of security and collaboration.
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