RE: Why Steve Jobs hates the enterprise
I can say that the same thing is true in government and education institutions. Where I work faculty and staff can choose to have different mobile devices but the IT organization makes it clear that they only support one or two particular devices. You are on your own otherwise. Our IT group decided not to adopt the iPhone per se, although I would say it is the most used, go figure.
The consumer market opens up the entire world as opposed to the corporate/enterprise market that wants to limit and control both hardware and software within their working environment. Makes sense financially. If you can't get a large enterprise to buy into your product and that is what you are using for your customer baseline you are really taking a huge risk to be successful.
I will add that there is an element of informal driving about what to buy in the consumer market. It usually revolves around how good your advertising is and how many people will recommend your product to someone else. Of course mass endorsement doesn't mean it is a good product.
Apple has hit this on the head both in consumer appeal and their advertising campaigns, but the great thing is they also have a very good product.
