Last week, Apple laid off about 50 salespeople, sources told CNET, Valleywag, and 9to5Mac.com. While the number of layoffs is a drop in the bucket for Apple, CIOs will be interested in where they happened: the enterprise group.
More on Apple in the enterprise: Apple’s enterprise strategy is the same as it ever was
Apple, of course, has never been keen on the enterprise market. Whether it’s Apple ads poking fun of corporate IT or departures of enterprise execs like Al Shipp, it’s no surprise that Apple’s enterprise strategy is really to court consumers who, in turn, will bring Apple products to work.
“I am not surprised that Apple selected the enterprise area for their workforce reduction,” says Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa. “A PC vendor needs to have dedicated infrastructure specific to the enterprise market, including a dedicated sales organization, account management team and customer support and care. It is costly a operation, and so there are very few true enterprise PC suppliers in the market.”
The bottom line: There’s simply no relief in sight for Mac engineers who must support the growing ranks of Macs in their Windows environment. Don’t expect Apple, for instance, to get new computers into the hands of enterprises before they hit the market so that Mac engineers can certify them to run in their companies.