Apple has recently shifted its focus to selling services. The new test program that the company announced is called ‘Business Essentials’. It is in its beta stage. This is similar to management software that companies like Microsoft Corp or VMware sell to large businesses for setting up and keeping their fleet of mobiles, laptops, and tablets secure. Apple, with Business Essential is offering a smaller version for businesses between 50 and 500 employees that has a small IT department or none at all.
This service offers three different packages for small businesses. The prices and services they will offer are as follows
- Single device:$2.99/per month (per user), supports one device and provides 50GB of iCloud storage.
- Multidevice:$6.99/per month (per user), supports up to three devices and provides 200GB of iCloud storage.
- Multidevice, more storage:$12.99/per month (per user), supports up to three devices, and provides 2TB of iCloud storage.
The company claims the service will exit beta in the spring of 2022. Thereon businesses will be able to add Apple Care+ to their plans. The companies who subscribe to these services will receive prioritized Apple support. That is 24*7 phone support, training for IT, and up to 2 device repairs per year.
Google and Microsoft offer similar storage services for small businesses. This service will provide the company with a different ID for business. This service will let the IT department easily manage systems with a new Apple Id’s which will be different from their Ids.
When users add these to devices, it will push things like Wi-Fi and VPN settings, enforce important security settings like FileVault, and connect to that user’s Business Essentials iCloud storage space.
Apple said that it will start testing Business Essentials in the United States this week. This beta version would be free until finalized for the next year. Apple also said that it will soon expand these services to other locations as well.
