My Macworld 2010 Review

As most Mac fans know, Macworld is the annual get together for the Apple and Mac faithful held every year in San Francisco. More than your typical technology conference, it has a long history of being THE event for Apple users (and fans), who come in from literally every corner world.  It is traditionally an Apple/Steve Jobs love show.  This year, there was a cloud hanging over the show as Apple announced last year that they would not be participating in 2010. The show has never been run by Apple, and the all-things i-Maker decided that they were no longer interested being the largest paying sponsor and exhitbtor at the Fan-Fest.  Since they made that announcement, fear had gripped the Macworld regulars that if Apple bailed on the show, then the community wouldn't come out.  There was much anticipation as to how Macworld 2010 would really do.

Well, I am here to report that the show for the Apple faithful seems just fine to me.  There were 30,000+ attendees, crowding around the expo hall, all lining up to see what Apple treats the various exhibitors were touting.  When you take into account that Apple's market includes computers, iPhones, and music devices, there really seemed to be something for everyone.  It WAS definitively smaller.  With a number of vendors choosing to following Apple's back-out plan, the total exhibitor count drop forced the entire show into once conference hall.  In the recent years past there were two large conference halls, with Apple taking up a HUGE portion of one of them. Even with Apple and a few others not there (Adobe absent was noticeable), the single exhibitor hall felt vibrant.

For my company, xTuple, an Mac friendly ERP software company, attending a show like Macworld may seem a little out of place, right?  Enterprise software, next to the guy who makes the iPod stickers? Or iPod cases? And new Fashion bags for the iPad?  Fortunately, that's not exactly how it goes. IDG, the group that puts the show on, does a nice job of carving off an area where people who have an interest in stuff like Accounting Software and ERP, can all mingle together.  There were a few of us there in the ERP category, and we all appreciate the "Enterprise and Business Special Interest Pavilion".  It brought those business types over to us, and frankly kept the iPod sticker chasers away. Sure we did have to explain "what is ERP" more than once or twice. But we had far more great conversations than bad ones.  Many attendees had "look for business software" on their show agenda. They specifically popped by our booth, and then I would seen them walk down the isle to a competitor's booth, taking notes along the way.  I gave several demo's, which is always interesting on the show floor.  We had customers and partners come by.  . 

One big topic of conversation for us was the availability of iTuple on the iPhone.  More and more we see the community looking for solutions that can go where they go and iTuple is the ideal solution for that environment.  iTuple extends the capabilities of the xTuple ERP CRM functionality by putting all of your customers prospects, general business contacts and to-do's in the palm of your hand.  There is nothing that appeals more to Apple technology user than to be able to really USE your technology. iTuple extends the consumer content sharing benefits of the iPhone to the Enterprise. Now it's not just your movies and music, but your ERP and CRM solutions are far more accessible.  xTuple partner Paladin Logic, the authors of iTuple, had a promotion going on during the show which exponentially increased the number of iTuple downloads from iTunes. It's in the hands of even more xTuplers, today.

I am always pleasantly surprised to speak with Manufacturing companies in particular at Macworld. You may not think of Manufacturing as an Apple sweet spot, but Mac centric manufacturing companies are out there.  Many are running xTuple today. They are always thrilled to find us, and and often relay that they felt abandoned years ago when all the ERP companies fled to the Windows platform. They are happy to see us at Macworld, and happy to hear our customer stories. Similarly I was pleased to be situated in the Enterprise Pavilion next to a Mac native CAD solution! For years CAD has only existed on a Windows platform.  This company is going cross platform like xTuple, but using our same technology footprint, Qt Software.  This is more good news for the Mac in Manufacturing.

As an Apple technology in the Enterprise user myself, I am thrilled to see Apple in more Manufacturing and more businesses in general. It has been exciting for me to see the growth of our Mac customer base as enterprise users all over the world continue to discover the power and depth of xTuple ERP, and how well it runs in a Mac, or mixed environment. xTuple's Apple user base grows every month.  That's more Apple technology in the Enterprise, and a good thing all around.  At the show I saw many signals from Apple directly and those working closely with Apple that the iKing is beginning to take notice of of the permeation of Apple technology in business, particularly in the what they call the SMB (Small Medium Businesses) market.  The SMB space has always been the place where you would be most likely to find Apple products.  As one of the key growth engines in our economy, paying attention to SMB's is crucial. It is working for xTuple. In 2010 and beyond, it looks to be working for Apple technology in the Enterprise as well.



Quickbooks: Who's frustrated?

In my working working world I meet people every day that are using Quickbooks software to take care of the accounting, billing, and inventory adminstration of their business. Most of the companies I speak to are SME's (Small/Medium Enterprises) that are growing and evolving.  Many companies that grow to all kinds of sizes begin their lives running Quickbooks. It's a fine solution to start your business with. It's simple to set up; it's inexpensive, and it is designed for the small business - its pretty easy to use. It's not quite ERP, but it is software that can run your company.

Then you get to be a successful company, and you start to grow. You suddenly have more customers, more suppliers, more orders, and more people who need access to your software. This is the beginning of the end for Quickbooks in your business, your enterprise. Thats usually when I meet them.  Irrespective of what they ask for, when they get to this place what they are looking for is an Enterprise solution.

The Quickbooks user that has hit the wall with Quickbooks is always a frustrated user. They have evolved from their "basic requirement" days, and are not longer caring JUST about simplicity and easy of use.  They want functionality, they want features. They want to add more users. They want reasonable performance for all those users. They want more security around those users. They need and want more, more, more.

The Mac user in particular gets frustrated as his business grows. Quickbooks for Mac is only a single user solution. These users have no Enterprise option, other than to move over to Windows. That is not a very happy forced march for the Mac user.  I love being at Macworld, talking with small business owners, and watching their face as they 'fess up to the fact that the only Windows computers in their company are there for the Quickbooks users. Man, does that cheese them.

Since Quickbooks came back to the Mac in 2003 (after a five year absence), the Mac's version of Quickbooks has perpetually lagged the Windows versions. Just about every year there is a new Quickbooks Windows version; the Mac was getting about the every other year new release rotation. Jeffery Battersby, a regular Quickbooks reviewer in his Macworld Blog points out the biggest and MOST frustrating holes in Quickbooks for Mac 2009 as he has done in past reviews:

1. Credit Card Processing
2. Mult-user Accounts (particularly painful)
3. Cross Platform data files
4. Online bill pay

Intuit walks a delicate balance. Their target audience for Quickbooks is the small company. They have literally millions of customers, many of them single user one person companies who appreciate simplicity over functionality. They need to keep it simple for these users or risk losing out to the competition on that simplicity battleground. Yes, there is competition. While they have done an admirable job staving off Microsoft over the years, today there other companies targeting the smallest companies. There are plenty of little Saas companies popping up everywhere, and MYOB's AccountEdge has been persistent and dedicated player in the Mac market, with an impressive refresh for 2009.

So while they walk this fine line, Intuit does continue to add fucntionality for those companies that push the envelope of the entry level Quickbooks solution. This is where the Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions (Windows only) comes in. On the Mac side, the development energy seems to be put into making the application more Mac like. Mac users appreciate the tight integration with iCal, the Cover Flow view of reports, and the very native Mac look and feel. But the growing Mac user needs more functionality, not a cool shiny new GUI.  I hear repeatedly that this market is frustrated that Intuit appears to continue to ignore them as a real opportunity.

Odd, that the Chairman of the Board of Intuit, Bill Campbell is on the board at Apple. He's been on the board since 1997. Not only does he have this Board relationship with Apple, he worked at Apple Computer in the early years and was CEO of Claris when Claris was bought by Apple. This guy knows Apple, he's been through the Apple laundry for decades. It is curious to me that he stands by Intuit subjugates Apple users to second class status in the small business world. 

Here is the bottom line for Mac users, looking for Accounting and Business software.  For $200, you can get a reasonable solution for a start up business. The pricing for the package is on the lower end of the all of Intuit's solutions, but in line with the Windows equivalent.  Here are a few approximate prices from the Intuit website:

QB Free Online (1 user, 20 customers)
QB Online Basic $10/mo.
QB SimpleStart: $100
QB Pro $200
QB for Mac: $200
QB Pro (3 User) $550
QB Premier (3 User) $1,100
QB Enterprise 30 users: $13,000

If the Mac user wants to move beyond what Intuit offers for the Mac, they have to switch products all together or (shudder) move over to Windows.