Tempting opportunity?
Partnerships with Cisco and IBM and the iPad Pro launch signal an enterprise drive from Apple. But, asks Jack Gilbert, does it have only rotten intentions when it comes to sharing the work with the channel?
In January, Apple announced it had made a larger quarterly profit - $18bn (￡11.7bn) - than any public company in history.
That record-breaking haul is testimony to the way the US giant has conquered the consumer market. However, while it is unquestionable that Apple has dominated its competitors in this space, one area the firm is yet to capture is the enterprise world, with Apple devices more associated with the pockets of consumers than the conference tables of banks and hedge funds. But a number of recent announcements suggest Apple will use some of its excess cash to change this.
In April, Apple announced a partnership with IBM focused on analysing fitness and health big data generated by Apple devices. Earlier this month, Apple partnered with Cisco to combine the iPhone and iPad with Cisco enterprise environments, to "give businesses the tools to maximise the potential of iOS", Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, said. Then, the iPad Pro was unveiled, with analysts expecting the device to generate opportunities in the business and enterprise space. But should resellers - most of which Apple has traditionally kept at arm's length - see this enterprise assault as a threat or an opportunity?
Warren Peel, managing director of authorised Apple reseller Trams, felt the recent corporate noises from Apple are a positive.
"The more that Apple does that kind of thing, the better," he said. "We only deal with businesses, so for us it's fantastic that they are concentrating more on these kinds of professional products and professional solutions."
Even though the Cisco partnership was unveiled only this month, Peel said the agreement has already boosted his business.
"We are already using case studies, such as the Cisco one, where they have turned away from PCs and given the employees the choice of which device to have on their desk. We are already discussing that and seeing certain customers talk about how they can impact on the total cost of ownership. And I don't think there is any attempt by Apple as a point for them to take more business direct."
Mark Hooper, owner of Apple reseller Farpoint, felt the Cisco partnership was demonstrative of the strategy he wanted from the
US giant.
"I think it's a good thing," he said. "They are concentrating far too much on normal consumer retail, when they should be concentrating also on their core business values, which is what they did in the past. They used to deal with corporate more, rather than just the consumer, and a partnership with Cisco is a good step forward."
Sam Routledge (pictured below), solutions director at Softcat, also said the recent decisions by Apple represent the right steps for the company and its partners.
"Right from the get-go with the iPad there was encouragement of people to use such devices in a work context, and I think the iPad Pro is going to play well. It stands to reason that part of that push is partnering up with the traditional IT vendors. That makes sense because it confirms a comfort level with the IT departments.
"If they run on Cisco, and there is a partnership between Apple and Cisco, that means security and good-quality wireless access. That is going to give organisations confidence to issue these devices deliberately."
According to Routledge, now is the natural time for Apple to venture into the corporate space.
"There is a lot of stuff around mobility, and you can't mobilise your workforce with a four-year-old brick laptop, but you can with a modern tablet," he said. "That drives Apple to market more with the commercial enterprise world. But it will also drive firms such as IBM, which is obviously interested in services for enabling the stuff, and Cisco, which is interested in connecting stuff."
Apple is not the only vendor to push a tablet into the enterprise world of late, with Microsoft having recently launched its business-oriented Surface Pro 3. Routledge felt Apple's latest tablet offering could be a reaction to this.
"It also probably has something to do with the iPad Pro; Apple is very much marketing that against the Surface, as a ‘prosumer device', to use Apple parlance of five years ago. I don't know if that is driving the company more into enterprise, but the fact that the device exists probably means it's the right time to start talking about partnerships like this. I also suspect there is a lot of customer demand that is driving it."
Routledge also felt that Apple's enterprise push is a positive move for the channel.
"It's an opportunity to take," he said. "End users within an organisation want to work in this way. If we have the wherewithal through Apple's partnerships with Cisco and IBM to take the opportunity to organisations and help them get their end users there faster, that's great news. It will result in some form of channel business; whether it's the iPad or networking gear, there is business for us there."
This opportunity for the channel is not only through selling Apple products, but also the services around them, according to Routledge.
"Whether or not you sell the Apple device, it's the opportunity to sell things beyond it. Because it becomes part of a wider strategy to mobilise your workforce, that means we can sell secure wireless, mobile device management and services to get that stuff set up," he said.
Rotten to the core?
But Richard Holway, chairman of analyst TechMarketView, argued the channel could be cut out of the loop on Apple's enterprise drive.
"You have to ask whether or not Apple needs them [partners], and I have my doubts. I think this is something of great significance and fear for the channel," he said.
"Apple is moving into a whole range of places and areas. In the past it had a minuscule foothold in the real corporate space. What happened was CEOs brought their iPads and iPhones into work and demanded their applications be used on them. More and more companies will find that demand is there, and I think the channel should be worried - they might find that they get sidelined and that is something that they have to bear in mind."
However, Mike Bacon, managing director of Apple reseller Academia, is confident that Apple is not going to cut the channel out of its corporate venture.
"We are quite pleased that their enterprise approach is through resellers. For corporate sales, they have their corporate account managers but they don't close business directly; it goes through the channel. Apple is highly engaged; we have a business development meeting every quarter and marketing meetings every quarter and they have been happening for the past five years.
"I think it [the corporate move] will be a channel play and I'm confident [enough] with Apple not to worry that it won't be."
Bacon would like to see improvement from Apple with the introduction of deal registration into its partner programme.
"We have always asked them for deal registration. Most of the other big vendors can do that, and it's not beyond the wit of man. For us, a lot of our big one-to-one deployments are a long sales cycle - it might take a year to get a school to that stage, and when they go out to tender it's a bunfight. We would like some support from Apple to recognise that work upfront, but so would our competitors," he said.