Replies to post #65813 on Apple Inc (AAPL)

[Tex]

re IT culture and Apple

having worked closely with large IT groups at companies in the past (now I just have one person), the attittude was always that they just plain felt comfortable with what they had. It was what they always did and you can't go wrong doing what you always did (??!!?) They would readily admit that the PC side had lots of problems but the Mac side just couldn't handle what the PCs do plus Apple would be out of business soon and there is no sofrtware for the Mac.

This view, keeping with what you know, is actually one of the reasons I think the future supports Apple in the enterprise. This is because the "what you know" seems to depend on what college grads learn running and supporting and studying computer systems in college. With Unix returning (DECs were replaced after I left for NT boxes, but Unix/Linux are coming back), expertise that does not assume MS-Win is the way to go is returning. And Apple is the world leading (by units) vendor of Unix.

Then, there are actual university adoptions of Macs for various things. As MacOS X expertise increases, the incoming new blood in IT departments will behave accordingly, and just as IT went to NT after the '90s produced NT expertise, IT is drifting to Unix again over cost and security reasons and because Unix expertise is getting more common in new grads.

I totally understand why Apple was crushed out of enterprise and why Apple hadn't a prayer due to cultural reasons. What I'm wondering is why now Apple should not have a crack at the market as the expertise and expectations change among incoming personnel (and as people realize Apple is doing quite well financially and will be making hardware for years to come).

I remember when NT came out, and how it struggled against Unix, and how Unix was slowly eroded in IT. Apple seems able to ride the pro-Unix wave a little in universities, and I think they will incubate MacOS X expertise just as they at one time incubated expertise in the nascent NT-OS.

Just a thought ...

Take care,
--Tex.