Apple goes BYOD

An Apple representative came to UMass today to talk about Mac Deployment and Management Strategies for Higher Education. Apple is essentially moving away from the model that computers will be provided or provisioned or managed by a business. You can still do some of those things, but that's not the right way to do it, as far as Apple is concerned.

The guy they sent, of course, isn't talking about what the strategy actually is -- its just about the helpful tools they provide (and don't provide) and what they enable you to do. In the end, it's about capturing the relationship between Apple and the individual -- and cutting out the institution.

Some of it makes sense and I can support. It's partly about individual empowerment. I've always advocated for making computers as useful to users as I know how. I don't want to hide things or block things or remove things to limit what people can do, like some sysadmins do. My model has always been to give the end user as much control as possible, but to make it easy to set everything back for the next user, so they get the best experience possible too. Apple has adopted the model where everyone has their own computer and, although an institution might want to set policies, they should really leave all the interaction to just between Apple and the individual.

They provide some workarounds and make sounds like you can still do it some other way, but it's clear where Apple is going. You can have any kool-aid you want, as long as its Apple™ Flavored.

Apple quit trying to compete directly in the enterprise a while ago. They don't try to sell server-class hardware, or pretend that their server tools are suitable for the enterprise. They were still popular for computer labs, however, because they, at least, tolerated open management approaches. That time is now drawing to a close.

My new Macbook Air also makes another point clear: they no longer see the operating system as a generic commodity. They're building tweaked and customized versions of the OS for each hardware class. There really isn't such a thing as "MacOS X". The underlying architecture is the same, but they have unique drivers and configuration for each model. And they don't really welcome anyone interacting with those at any level, other than buying something through the Apple Store.

They want to convert everyone to be consumers of technology. There may be developers, but only in the sense that they work around the edges of what Apple has staked out for themselves as controlling the relationship with the end user. Caveat Emptor.