Apple, iPhone courting corporate customers as consumer sales drop
With Apple's iPhone undergoing a slow period for sales, due in part to its increasingly reliance on big-business customers, the company has become to turn its focus more on B2B consumers who occupy a crucial role now that the firm’s phone sales have been slowing down.
Last year’s $25bn in sales of equipment and services to companies and other large customers represented only about 11 per cent of total revenue, but also reflected a 40 per cent jump over the previous year, compared with 28 per cent revenue growth overall for the company, according to The New York Times.
“Sales of high-end iPads to business customers in particular have been strong,” the paper reported. “Nearly half of all iPads are now bought by corporations and governments. Companies are turning to Apple’s products for their tight-knit hardware and software, advanced security features and intuitive interfaces.
“Aiding Apple’s corporate sales has been a concern that phones and tablets running Google’s Android software, which are generally cheaper and popular with consumers, have lagged in the security technology and the standardization that companies want.”
The company’s iPhones and iPads “have become the preferred mobile computing devices for corporations, as industries from insurers to airlines aim to ditch bulky PCs and give their employees the ability to do their jobs from anywhere using smartphones or tablets,” the paper reported.
And Apple CEO Tim Cook takes a different view of the corporate customer than Jobs. The firm started taking “enterprise” buyers more seriously when people began using their iPhones and iPads at work, Cook told a conference in September, according to Bloomberg. “When the world was bifurcated between consumer and enterprise, we focused on the consumer,” Cook said. “But now if you want a smartphone, you don’t say, ‘I want an enterprise smartphone. Enterprise is a huge opportunity for us.”
Additionally, it is August now which means as a rule September is a time where a new iPhone is rolled out. September is traditionally the month when the Cupertino tech giant unveils its latest iPhone and iPad models, and “people familiar with the matter,” as Bloomberg calls its sources, are chock full of this year’s spoilers of what’s coming down the pike.