[tootie]

This seems like the kind of thing Apple should be offering on their own already. But ultimately you're not going to see many enterprises adopt an Apple-only MDM unless they just love vendor lock-in to the most expensive vendor.

Negativity aside, I applaud the effort. The MDM space is messy and crowded with bloated products. I hope these guys can at the very least pop the bubble a bit.

[mrpippy]

One of the few remaining services in macOS Server (discussed elsewhere on HN today) is Profile Manager, an Apple-developed MDM server. Given that it requires a static public IP and only runs on macOS, there's a pretty small niche that even could use it. The MicroMDM site describes it as the 'reference' or 'proof-of-concept' MDM server, "depending on how jaded you are about it".

I think Apple is happy with the current state of MDM servers--several good 3rd-party options, both self-hosted and cloud.

[hsk0823]

Apple has absolutely no desire to go into the device management business. They make the devices, they don't provide IT departments with any in house tools, the entire macOS management ecosystem has risen from a need and it's a mish mash of different vendors / open source tools / approaches to skin the cat that is device management.

[tootie]

They already took a baby step in by acquiring TestFlight. It's a more dev/QA-centric product, but it overlaps with MDM. Google is already in the MDM space for Chrome devices. Apple has already been remarkably successful in the enterprise space despite seemingly never going after it. Vendors like Square are deploying thousands of iPads to retail spaces. I think there's a huge opportunity there.

[giobox]

TestFlight helped solve very real problems iOS developers had back in the day when it came to managing beta testing etc, and the acquisition was clearly developer tools focused for Apple. I don’t think it’s sensible to read too much MDM ambition (if any really) on Apple’s part into that particular acquisition.

MDM is a very “enterprisey” market for Apple specifically, historically they’ve been more than happy to let others fight for the few dollars it typically brings in relative to their giant consumer/hardware businesses. Even Tim Cook has made the argument that letting businesses like IBM handle the enterprise cruft helps keep Apple’s focus on just making great consumer products.

> https://www.recode.net/2014/7/15/11628872/apple-and-ibm-ceos...

[beager]

Apple is actively trying to sell me MDM services. So they may not be in the business of making it easy, but they're certainly in the business of making money on it.

[brazzledazzle]

Isn’t that their pro-services offering where they monkeyed together a bunch of enterprise scripts for bugs/shortfalls Apple will never fix/implement? Last I checked, I think the only MDM “service” they offer is evaluating your situation as part of the enterprise package and no matter what telling you to use JAMF.