Is this just hype around the release of a new OS or is Microsoft really slipping as much as the Mac zealots hope.  The release of Windows 7 will give us a better insight upon its release in October, but for now Apple is the star of the show.

All the while we are hearing more clients asking and consider Mac’s for the their businesses.  We are constantly doing research on moving proprietary businesses application to the Mac or even web platforms to allow them to use Mac’s.

The popularity of the iPhone, the lowered resistance to the Mac in business and the ubiquity of the web is making the switch easier than ever.

“Mac OSX Server allowed us to get up and running quickier than a Linux or Windows solution.  It also allows us to make whatever modifications and upgrades we feel necessary to meet the high demand expected.”

Zoomdex allows businesses to list specific products and services and allows visitors to search for those specific selections.  Phone book sites only allow searches by categories such as hardware stores or computer programming.  Zoomdex allows the user to search for Baldwin Brass doorknobs  or php programming.  This is of course dependant on the business entering those items into the list of products or services they offer.

Zoomdex also touts the ability for small and home based businesses with limited advertising budgets to get online within minutes.  Getting listed in the phone book can require months and newspaper ads are very expensive.

Use of the Mac server platform is another indication of small businesses beginning to adopt the Mac for serious business applications.

If you have a business that need low cost advertising, visit www.zoomdex.com and claim your listing.  During the beta, inclusion in the index is free.

With Apple actually delivering these applications and Microsoft just talking about it, can developers afford to wait for Redmond to ship IE 8?  Will there applications be cross browser capatible? Apple says theirs will be. Of course, Safari will run them faster, but they will be open standard compliant, so any browser should run them exactly the same.

We will see if Apple delivers on it’s promise by the end of July.  Let’s hope that MobileMe doesn’t turn into another Vista.  It needs to be stable, fast and reliable when it hits the street.  Apple seems to be trying to create an image of fast, lightweight and reliable and a black eye called MobileMe would be a serious setback.

Apple has historically not directly marketed itself as an alternative to business, but has chosen to let business find it. Vista has certainly helped and the PC vs Mac tv ads could be argued as business ads.  Either way, with all the recent activity about “Exchange” this and “Exchange” that, it seems clear Apple is primed for a ninja like attack.  First release MobileMe, then a suite of online applications like iWork, then hit them with a lean, clean, fast and secure Snow Leopard.  

Look at some of the client’s that Apple touts on stage at the 2008 WWDC.  The Army! Really? The US ARMY?

What are the troops going to do with a iPhone in the field?  Is there signal in the Sahari?

If I worked in Redmond, I would be updating my resume before next years MacWorld.

Well, if MobileMe is Exchange for the rest of us, then Snow Leopard and MobileMe together must be the beginnings of a version Exchange built by Apple to compete directly with Microsoft’s Exchange.

Just read the features list of the OSX Snow Leopard Server.

• Calendar Server
• Address Book Server
• Email Server
• etc…

Sure, the current version of Leopard Server has a calendar server and an email server, but NOT an address book server.  Want to bet it will be a “push” server. Sound familar?

How about the “new” email server.  What new email server? Up to now Apple has used a collection of open source products, like Postfix for email.

Look at the actual text from the Snow Leopard Server page…

Mac OS X Server’s open standards-based mail service is the ideal server for small businesses or companies looking to bring email in-house. Snow Leopard Server dramatically increases its performance and scalability with an overhauled engine designed to handle thousands of simultaneous connections. Mail services have been enhanced to include server-side email rules and vacation messages.

How is Apple going to “dramatically increase performance and scalability” of this “overhauled engine”?  Perhaps by using the existing open source products as a jumping off point to build their own version of Exchange. Modular perhaps, but Exchange none the less. I might be wrong, but I don’t think Postfix currently supports server-side email rules or vacation messages. 

Just a hunch, but most small businesses don’t need “thousands of simultaneous connections”.  Sounds like an move to the enterprise to me. Lots of Macs, iPhones, iPod Touch and other upcoming products, all synchronized and available from the users Outlook Web Access MobileMe account, anywhere.

Well see in… “about a year”.