Apple chief says Apple Business Essentials doesn't compete with Jamf

Apple's Jeremy Butcher speaking at a Jamf conference in 2019

Now in beta, and launching officially in 2022, Apple Business Essentials is a service for small business. It allows for management of hundreds of devices, including Macs, iPhones and iPads.

Jeremy Butcher, from Apple's Enterprise and Education Product Marketing department, has told Relay.FM's "Mac Power Users" podcast that "the small business part is key."

"There's a lot of folks that are doing this that are very focused on large enterprise," said Butcher. "Part of the reason that we saw the opportunity that we did is that we think for small business there, there are folks that aren't quite yet having their needs met."

This is a service that combines device management, storage and support into a single subscription," he continued, "with the goal of helping small businesses tackle all the different things that come up throughout the use of Apple devices in their organisation."

Butcher says that Apple thinks that "up to 500 employees is a good fit for the types of features" in Apple Business Essentials.

"But really, there's no low end minimum," he said. "If you are a very small organisation, we feel like we've built a really easy to use product that can help you with these things as well."

According to Butcher, Apple Business Essentials follows on from "a lot of those features that we've been building for a while now," but it's also "absolutely the biggest step that we've made."

"At the end of the day though, if somebody is using a, you know, a Mosyle or a Jamf Now, or any kind of solution, and they're happy with it, we're thrilled," said Butcher. "And so this is not about going after, you know, this market in a way that's trying to be competitive, but it really is something where we just see such a big opportunity and a lot of folks that need a little bit more help."

"If you're happy, we're happy," he continued. "That's kind of the luxury that we have as the as the [provider of the] whole package... the hardware or the software and the services."

Butcher has been involved in device management issues at Apple for some years. In 2019, he spoke at the annual Jamf Nation User Conference about the company's commitment to education and enterprise customers.