> The Enterprise doesn’t care about mobile — it really doesn’t.
The enterprise didn't care about minicomputers, until it did.
The enterprise didn't care about PCs, until it did.
The enterprise didn't care about Web applications, until it did.
In each of the above cases, there were people insisting that The Enterprise would never follow the general market. The Enterprise has special needs, they said. The Enterprise needs things the new tech can't provide, they said. They kept saying that right up to the moment The Enterprise finally moved and made their objections irrelevant.
Enterprise customers see the hot new stuff general consumers have access to. They want it. And they command big enough budgets that someone will eventually get the hot new stuff up-armored and Enterprise-Readied so they can use it to peel off a share of those budgets. By the time this actually gets deployed the hot new tech isn't hot or new anymore, but that doesn't matter. Once the first enterprise domino falls, the rest tend to fall pretty predictably.
You can make a good living for a long time selling legacy tech into the enterprise market. But "a long time" does not mean forever. Enterprise software buyers move slowly, but they do move.
I think there's a distinction to be drawn between mobile _apps_ and mobile device support. It is important to note that often the reason a mobile app exists is for reasons other than to provide features to the user. For example it is easier to monetize users with an app (you can do in-app purchases and plague the user with push notifications to drive engagement). Users are more likely to stay being users with an app. You can support social type interaction such as taking photos easier. None of this matters much for enterprise applications.
Therefore most of the time a simple mobile-friendly web app works fine for enterprises.
The enterprise didn't care about minicomputers, until it did.
The enterprise didn't care about PCs, until it did.
The enterprise didn't care about Web applications, until it did.
In each of the above cases, there were people insisting that The Enterprise would never follow the general market. The Enterprise has special needs, they said. The Enterprise needs things the new tech can't provide, they said. They kept saying that right up to the moment The Enterprise finally moved and made their objections irrelevant.
Enterprise customers see the hot new stuff general consumers have access to. They want it. And they command big enough budgets that someone will eventually get the hot new stuff up-armored and Enterprise-Readied so they can use it to peel off a share of those budgets. By the time this actually gets deployed the hot new tech isn't hot or new anymore, but that doesn't matter. Once the first enterprise domino falls, the rest tend to fall pretty predictably.
You can make a good living for a long time selling legacy tech into the enterprise market. But "a long time" does not mean forever. Enterprise software buyers move slowly, but they do move.