SAN FRANCISCO - Steven P. never cared much about selling products to the Apple big business. The late Apple CEO so disliked the process that the chief information officer needed to cater for business rather than consumer interests that he called it a "hole" in a meeting with company officials in 2005. "There are 500 men and 500 women - C.I.O. Fortune's (chief information technology executive) chief information officer - and you have to go through:" Mr. Jobs said then.
A funny thing happened, though, in the past few years. Big companies started buying Apple products - and lots of people - for their employees. And the iPad generally gives Apple a stamp of approval that it never enjoyed when it entered the workplace, focusing on selling strictly Macintosh PCs.
While corporate technology buyers argue that Apple isn't trying to shy away from the fact that consumers are still its top priority, they point out that the company has become easier to work with in recent years, adding features to its devices that enable them to attract business. It also doesn't hurt that Apple's new CEO, Timothy D. Cook, is viewed with disdain as a more comfortable C.I.O.
“What they have done over the past few years is really start to think in a deeper way about enterprise needs,” said Rich Adduci, chief information officer of Boston Scientific, a maker of medical devices that specializes in about 3,000 iPads are being distributed to more than 1,500 people selling them live by the end of the year.
Apple, which declined to comment for this article, began declining to suggest that it sees the enterprise market as a big growth opportunity. During its recent earnings call with analysts, Apple executives boasted that a portion of the Fortune 500 companies were testing iPhones or deploying iPads — 92 percent and 93 percent, respectively, Apple said last month.
“You’ve never heard these data before,” said Gene Gene, an analyst at the University of Münster in Jaffray Perth. "The reason is because they've worked hard for decades and finally they have a story to tell in the business."
Among the big customers Apple has won recently is home-renovation retailer Lowe's, which said it purchased about 42,000 Employee iPhones use the reservoir. Rather than having to hunt for a computer, employees can use the device in the store's aisles to check inventory, pull up video footage and help customers estimate expenses for painting, flooring and other items.