Apple has recently trademarked Joint-Venture which is targeted at the business World.

The trademark is described as:

Maintenance, installation and repair of computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer networks, and consumer electronic devices; information, advisory and consultancy services

Technical support and consulting services pertaining to computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer software and consumer electronics; troubleshooting and computer diagnostic services for computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer software and consumer electronic devices; consulting services in the field of selection, implementation and use of computer hardware and software systems for others.

Education and training services, namely, personal instruction and conducting classes, workshops, conferences and seminars in the field of computers, computer software, computer peripherals, online services, information technology, internet website design, video products and consumer electronics; arranging of exhibitions, seminars and conferences; arranging professional workshop and training courses; providing on-line publications in the nature of newsletters in the field of computers, computer software, computer peripherals, online services, information technology, internet website design, video products and consumer electronics.

Are we finally in to see Apple taking a real stab at the business world? Speculations are gearing towards a service to help SMEs adopt and use Apple technology, but with Steve Jobs announcing that he was going to take big bold risks at the Apple all-hands meeting earlier this year, we may even see a Venture Capitalist type organisation investing in companies ready to develop enterprise software for the Mac and finally give Apple a place in the business market.

It is more and more apparent that business users have adopted the Mac, just go to any airport lounge across the World and count those executives sporting a shiny MacBook Pro; however, when it comes to enterprise software most of these however have to resort to virtualisation technologies to run their enterprise systems in a Windows environment. I myself use a Mac for everyday tasks but am running Parallels Desktop to carry a version of our company’s software. Wouldn’t it be nice to run this straight out of Mac OS? For instance, we are long overdue for a user friendly and installable version of Oracle, after this step, App Servers such as JBoss are already available for the Mac and will enable virtually any software to be accessed or run on a Mac without the need for space and memory hungry Virtual Machines.

Of course, as mentioned in one of my previous post, the iPad and iPhone could turn into wonderful business devices in the fields of CRM, Order Entry, Resource tracking, sales demonstrations and more.

Stay tuned!