Jamf CEO welcomes Apple Business Essentials

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Apple arguably jumped into Apple’s thriving device management space when it introduced Apple Business Essentials this week. But how do people in the industry feel about the company’s debut?

CEO Jamf welcomes the opportunity

“When Apple innovates, Jamf celebrates,” said Jamf CEO, Dean Hager, while learning about Apple Business Essentials. “We believe this expected announcement is good news and presents Jamf with an extraordinary opportunity.”

Analyst Horace Dediu notes that the addressable markets are effective about 212 million businesses worldwide, with about 31 million in the US alone. Most of these smaller entities run their IT in a way that looks more like a consumer market than an enterprise, Carolina Milanesi Creative Strategy analyst notes.

Milanesi thinks Apple’s entry into the market may be a problem for Apple MDM vendors like Jamf, but sees an opportunity for them to enhance Apple’s basic offering in other ways. That’s what Hager thought too.

Jamf, which announced a series of impressive Q3 results on November 11, has always been with Apple. Hager noted several times over the past decade when industry watchers thought Apple’s move could hurt its business: Once when Apple introduced MDM in 2010, again in 2011 with Profile Manager, then with Apple Configurator, and more recently with Apple Business Manager.

Bridging the gap

Hager argues that in each of those cases, Jamf’s business grew as it worked to bridge the gap between what Apple had to offer and the sometimes more specialized needs of the company’s customers.

Speaking during the fiscal call, Hager shared some information regarding the bigger clients, some of which are moving to Macs powered by Apple’s M1 chip. These examples also include large-scale deployments, such as the 100,000 devices used in the aviation industry and the iPads used during SpaceX’s recent space flight.

Arguably these implementations represent the more specialized requirements that become typical in businesses as they grow beyond a certain level and require more complex solutions than what Apple provides, at least for now.

Hager also argues that his company’s growing portfolio of security and education products provides extra ammunition to help businesses use Apple products. Jamf has also built market-proven solutions for zero-touch deployments, support for Microsoft Azure, and more.

It’s not a surprise

Apple’s move is no big surprise. The company is expected to introduce something like this since acquiring smaller MDM provider Fleetsmith in 2020.

Apple should increase its business management offerings, Hager said. Business users need entry-level tools, and Apple needs a more equal footing with other solutions aimed at businesses of that size.

Apple’s existing Business Manager at the company could be deemed too complex for a small business, he said. Apple Business Essentials will make it even easier, which will help further accelerate SMB adoption from Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.

Apple’s move also provides a more equal footing than Surface and Chromebooks when it comes to remotely wiping business data. Hager cites (but doesn’t share) first-hand Jamf data showing some small businesses resist moving to Apple systems because of such challenges.

“These problems need to be solved,” he said. “This will raise Apple’s profile in the business. Apple’s weakest point in business has always been for small businesses that are just starting out.”

Addigy also sees an opportunity

Addigy CEO Jason Dettbarn also seems positive about Apple’s move. “This announcement demonstrates Apple’s commitment to Apple at work and the major investment in robustness of the MDM protocol for Apple MDM vendors such as Addigy,” he said. Business Essence “provides a great starting point for customers to adopt Apple” and then moves to more sophisticated systems when they need them.

Apple arguably strikes the market at a crucial time.

Leading from below

The move to hybrid jobs has put employee choice on the higher agenda with most new hires now preferring Macs. This has prompted a huge investment in Mac for business. IDC claims that in Q3 Apple shipped more Macs than any quarter in history at twice the industry’s growth rate. This is a continuous pattern, making Mac computers the fastest growing computer for seven quarters, a growth rate of roughly double the industry.

Going forward, nothing has changed, said Hager.

“We’re going to fill the gap between what Apple builds and the company’s needs,” he said. “We see Apple Business Essentials customers as an up and coming new small business market, and we will make sure our additional products sell well to that base and add extra value. We will give them a way forward to a more robust and scalable solution.”

If Apple’s move helps generate sustainable growth for its platform in the enterprise market, then business users now enjoy a feast of integration providers capable of supporting the migration, with Apple supporting the smallest operations, and larger partners such as Jamf, Addigy or SAP, helping to support platforms that are larger. barely had the market share of the company 10 years ago.

Things have changed since 2010.

“I don’t believe you can be a credible enterprise software provider if you’re not part of the current Apple ecosystem,” said Jeetu Patel, Cisco general manager and executive vice president, security and collaboration.