On Friday I interviewed Microsoft Vista SP1 production manager David Zipkin. And while Zipkin insisted that SP1 isn’t just a roll-up of patches, updates, and security fixes that you’re already getting on Windows Update, he was hard pressed to tell just what exactly is new in the forthcoming service pack. The truth is there are new things, but very few that you or I really care about.

In the end, maybe it’s all a moot point anyway, since most people will get SP1 when they buy a new PC or download it as part of Windows Update, where it will be about a 55MB download. Microsoft will be distributing it on DVD, both to enterprises with license agreements and to consumers who are willing to sign up for it on a Web form, pay a modest fee for shipping, and wait several weeks. But my guess is that waiting won’t be a huge hardship.

For deeper detail about what’s in Vista SP1, check out Microsoft’s Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta White Paper. Also, some of these improvements are already available. Take a look at this Nick White entry in the Windows Vista Blog.

What’s New?
The promise includes improvements to performance, reliability, application compatibility, device driver support, and emerging hardware and standards. But the details I’m privy to so far either barely support the claim or are too vague to be more than marketing.

Everyday Vista users may be happy to learn that Microsoft is working on the performance of Windows Explorer file copies. Zipkin says the all-too-familiar delay while Vista figures out how long the operation will take will all but disappear, and the copy operation should be faster overall. Microsoft is also claiming some improvement to Vista shutdown times, and it expects to trim hibernate and resume from hibernation times in SP1.

Some of the better improvements relate to hardware support and reliability. More than 700,000 Vista device drivers have been created since Vista shipped, but many of these have been offered via Windows Update. Microsoft’s engineers have worked on problem areas, including support for some newer graphics card, external displays served from laptops, and networking configuration. There’s also claimed improvement to Vista installations upgraded from Windows XP, to printer compatibility, and to the reliability and performance of Vista entering and resuming from sleep mode.

Other performance benefits include some added speed and reduced CPU utilization for Internet Explorer 7, improvements for notebook battery life by cutting back on screen redrawing on certain computers, and faster and less bandwidth-intensive network browse operations.

Microsoft is adding several minor improvements to BitLocker drive encryption. For example, it will be able to encrypt all volumes on a machine, not just the C: drive. Enterprise customers may be pleased to find that GPEdit.msc will edit Group Policies by default, although SP1 will automatically uninstall the Group Policy Management Console.

Some of the new standards and technologies SP1 adds Vista support for include Direct3D 10.1, support for network boot by using x64 EFI, Secure Digital (SD) Advanced Direct Memory Access, and support for the exFAT file system, designed for us with flash memory storage. Vista SP1 also adds support for the Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP), which will help provide VPN remote access connections that are better able to navigate network address translation, Web proxies, and firewalls.

Setup and Initial Impressions
The Beta I received on DVD from Microsoft contains a 687MB installation file that is a superset of the Windows Update download that Vista users will eventually see. It comes with code that can update any version of Vista and as well as all language packs.

The installation process starts by unpacking the code, and then you’re presented with a start screen that gives you the option to put a check in the box to automatically restart Vista when the upgrade is finished. It permits unattended installation.

When my Vista Ultimate test machine (my main Vista production machine, with a fresh backup of the hard drive) came up after the SP1 installation, the first thing I was confronted with was a cryptic command-line log listing, which appeared to imply that something might have gone wrong. I attempted to copy the contents, but it ripped by before I had to chance to read it. As Vista entered its GUI, though, it flashed up an OK dialog telling me that SP1 had been installed successfully.

In my first half hour with SP1, it became clear to me that Vista was operating a bit faster in several regards. Vista’s network browse window is much better than before. It’s still slow to load the first time, but for the first time ever, it brought up my entire network without any balkiness. Other windows snapped open with more authority too. One oddity I noticed is that my wireless networking connection was taking priority over the 1GB wired LAN connection. Why does Windows do that? I tried resetting the LAN connection; Vista would see it but then eventually drop it off again, preferring its Wi-Fi latch on the Internet.

The biggest user-interface change in SP1 appears to be something that’s missing, not something that’s been added. To comply with a legal settlement in a complaint brought by Google, Microsoft has removed the Search menu item on the right side of the Start Menu. It has also made it possible to configure third-party desktop search tools, such as Google Desktop (not my first choice, by the way) as Vista’s whole-computer indexing tool. For more information about this, including before and after pictures, see Computerworld’s first-look review, Vista SP1 beta’s biggest mod is to the search function, by Preston Gralla.

My initial impressions of SP1 are mostly positive. Some time needs to go by, and later code tried, before I’ll draw conclusions.

The bottom line is this: There’s nothing about SP1 that should make enterprise customers suddenly feel safe in buying Vista. In a world where software updates via its Internet tether, all of that is a little ridiculous. SP1 is primarily a patch/security update roll-up. On the other hand, I’ve seen nothing so far that would keep me from grabbing it when it’s ready, either. It’s pretty much a nonevent.

The week after the column appeared (after I returned from a vacation), I received a call from Apple acknowledging for the first time that, yes, it has an enterprise division headed by Al Shipp, senior vice president of enterprise sales. Only hitch was, Apple’s PR department wasn’t authorized to let me talk to Mr. Shipp or, in fact, anyone in Apple Enterprise.

Because Apple wasn’t talking, I reached out to Dale Frantz, CIO of Auto Warehousing Co., whose company was the focus of a case study about enterprise adoption of Apple servers, desktops, handhelds, and software in Mac Attack! An enterprise PC shop switches to Apple, July 16, 2007, Computerworld, by Julia King.

My interview with Frantz was far-ranging and fascinating. Not many CIOs these days have the brass to dump everything Windows-related and start all over again with Apple. He’s in the middle of doing it. He’s met with Al Shipp and has more than 20 business cards from the Seattle office of Apple Enterprise. His several-hundred-thousand-dollar overall deal with Apple comes with all the discounts, support, and engineering help that you’d expect from Microsoft. Apple is in every way doing exactly what I called for (except for selling enterprise-specific desktop hardware) in it dealings with Tacoma-based Auto Warehousing. So what gives?

I’m working on a follow-up story to the Enterprise Prize piece. In the meantime, though, I couldn’t resist passing along Frantz’s best guess as to why Apple has reached out to some medium-size businesses like his but isn’t making a major push to reel in larger enterprises. His belief is that Apple is quietly preparing to enter the enterprise market — and doesn’t want to tip its hand until it has the infrastructure in place to support enterprise customers. By infrastructure, Frantz means documentation, trained software engineers, and sales support.

Frantz also readily agreed with my analysis that, during this time when Vista is floundering a bit, Apple has an unusual window of opportunity — call it 18 months — to make some inroads with businesses of all sizes.

Apple has made a lot of smart moves over the past few years. Maybe the next one, the move to enterprise sales, has just yet to be played.

If you’re an enterprise IT manager whose company has recently moved to Apple, I’d like to hear from you. Drop me a line. (If you let me know it’s what you prefer, I will keep what you tell me confidential.)

Now, for the first time since the Mac was introduced in 1984, Apple has a real opportunity to play to win by focusing some of its resources on selling computers to the enterprise. Apple isn’t a large company, however, and it’s headed in an entirely different direction, transforming itself from a consumer computer company to a consumer electronics company. But is that truly the right move for Apple? It might be, but it’s not without risk. And it may mean passing up a golden opportunity.

Small Window
Don’t believe the siren song emanating from Redmond about how well Vista is doing. It’s not doing all that well. That doesn’t mean Microsoft is in trouble long term, because as things stand now, Vista (and its mildly improved derivatives) will eventually take over the Windows marketplace and wind up being the largest-selling version of Windows ever.

But there’s a brief period of time — a year, perhaps 18 months — in which a determined competitor with a better operating system and a more customer-focused strategy might be able to gain a toehold among enterprise computer buyers.

It’s not just the fact that Vista requires powerful hardware and has received a mixed reception that threatens Windows’ dominance. A small but growing number of IT pros have begun questioning Microsoft’s understanding of and commitment to their needs. The software giant’s increasingly self-serving policies, its obsession with software piracy, its inability to create a reliable desktop environment, and the constant need to upgrade software and hardware to keep pace with newer versions of Windows are wearing down the patience of its customer base.

That gives Apple an opening. And on the desktop, the Macintosh offers a combination that no other alternative does:

1. Mac OS X’s FreeBSD roots provide a level of reliability matched by no version of Windows and no previous version of the Mac. In other words, it’s nearly as reliable as Linux. The improved reliability and the fact that malware is targeted at Windows machines means reduced help desk calls and longer life spans for purchased Mac units.

2. On top of that, OS X has a rich user interface that is familiar to both Mac and Windows users, since Windows and the Mac use virtually all the same underlying UI techniques.

Groundwork Laid, but Where’s Apple Now?
Apple’s current opportunity in the enterprise marketplace is the direct result of its brilliant work in designing the best-of-breed desktop operating system back in 2001 when it introduced Mac OS X 10.0. More than six years and two versions of Microsoft’s Windows later, OS X is still the state of the art in desktop operating systems. OS X has also revitalized the Mac software marketplace (despite Apple’s poor showing in supporting independent software vendors).

Last year’s switch to an Intel-based architecture capped off a long series of moves by Apple — including aggressive and inexpensive updates of OS X, much better interoperability on Windows networks, and the release of the Boot Camp software for booting Windows on a Mac — that have prepared the company to make a run at the enterprise.

But since then, the focus has been on the iPhone and new iPods. Apple even pushed back the release of OS X 10.5 “Leopard” for that purpose. Cupertino shows no signs of pursuing a serious strategy to grow enterprise sales.

I tried going to the source to find out more. About three weeks ago, I put the question to Apple’s PR department: What is Apple’s strategy for selling computers to enterprises? The company has had every chance to answer that question; several very good PR people have contacted me, but they haven’t had anything of substance to say. The sum total of the direct response so far has been: “Look at the Business page on the Apple website.” The Apple Business page is aimed at small businesses, not enterprises. There’s nothing on this page of interest to corporate IT pros.

In order to succeed in the enterprise marketplace, Apple has to do several things. It needs an enterprise product line (a thought I’ll elaborate on in a moment). It needs enterprise pricing, including a volume-licensing strategy. It needs an enterprise sales force. It needs IT-oriented support policies and quality levels.

It’s not clear to me that Apple has the right stuff to sell to the corporate marketplace. Who knows, perhaps Steve Jobs is making the right decision in steering away from the enterprise. Maybe he knows Apple can’t succeed there because it just isn’t culturally suited to the business of selling to other businesses. But when it comes to building hardware for big business, there’s no doubt in my mind that Apple could succeed.

Enterprise Macs
Over the past year or two, a number of experts and pundits — some of whom were writing for Computerworld — have said that Apple’s existing product line would work fine as is for IT. But that’s just not the case. There are several issues with Mac hardware that keeps it from being ideal.

The MacBook Pro 15 and 17 models are too expensive by about $600 to $700 to compete with top-quality Windows notebooks, such as the Lenovo T60 series. Enterprises need to be able to purchase a MacBook Pro for around $1,900 with 2GB of RAM and a 120GB drive.

While it’s very easy to upgrade RAM in the MacBook Pros, it’s difficult to replace hard drives. To succeed in the enterprise, Apple needs to adopt user-removable hard drives. That makes it much easier for IT departments to troubleshoot and fix their users’ problems without having to crack the case of a notebook — something that’s a little touchy with the Macs.

The lack of a docking station option from Apple is also a serious drawback. It may sound minor, but docking stations are used heavily by companies that have adopted the no-desktop approach. Busy employees bring their notebooks home to work there, and also on the road. The docking station cuts down on cable connections, which, in turn, cuts down on help desk calls. At the very least, without the docking station, the 15-inch model needs a third USB port like the 17-inch MacBook Pro.

In some enterprises, a 13.3-inch-screen subnotebook has become the staple computer. Frequent travelers prefer the smaller size and heft of subnotebooks. Apple’s MacBook occupies this form factor, but the company designed it for students, not execs.

Like the MacBook Pro 15, it lacks ease of upgradeability for anything but RAM, it has only two USB ports, it doesn’t have a docking station, and the screen is small for work on spreadsheets, presentations, and other common business pursuits. Happily, the MacBook does support an external display at up to 1,920-by-1,200-pixel resolution. But back on the downside, the Chiclet-style keyboard isn’t appealing to touch typists.

Finally, the MacBook is thicker than the MacBook Pros. In order to build the small and light notebook that many enterprise users crave, Apple should start with the MacBook Pro case and trim it for a 13.3-inch display. It doesn’t have to be aluminum, but it does have to look upscale, and it needs the same flexibility and upgradeability I suggested for the MacBook Pro.

IT pros should be able to snag this 13.3-inch MacBook for business at around $1,400 with 2GB of RAM and a 100GB hard drive.

Not every business organization has settled on notebooks, and this is the area in which Apple is the weakest. To succeed in the corporate world, Apple needs to build an expandable/upgradeable desktop Mac that lets IT shops easily upgrade RAM, easily replace the original hard drive, add a second hard drive, upgrade the video, and have at least one free card slot or internal expansion area.

It should also come with a DVI port (and VGA adapter) for an external display. There’s no reason why the basic specs shouldn’t be similar to those of the iMac. But it needs to sell for $1,000 (without monitor) with 2GB of RAM and a 120MB hard drive.

In case you’re wondering, the iMac is not a good business machine. It’s barely upgradeable, and enterprises can often get more mileage out of LCD displays than they can out of desktop computers. Besides, if either the monitor or the computer needs to be sent in for service, the other piece must be sent too. The iMac is just not well designed for enterprise use.

Getting There?
By now you’ve probably gathered that there’s very little reason to suspect that Apple takes the enterprise market seriously. Just the fact that we really don’t know what Apple thinks about this is enough to say there’s no strategy. Business-oriented strategies aren’t secretive. That’s a consumer marketing thing.

To make it all happen, Apple would have to design and sell new business Macs with a pricing structure aimed at volume sales. It would have to make a stated commitment to take care of its enterprise customers.

In other words, Apple would need to stop looking at corporate computing as a dirty word. The aloofness Apple exudes as a consumer electronics company plays fine to that marketplace, but that doesn’t play well in the business-to-business space. IT customers want to be listened to and respected, and they want the company they buy from to offer innovative products and services that address their needs.

A public move by Apple in this direction would generate a ton of interest. Enterprise buyers stake their careers on their purchases. They need to feel the goodwill.

The truth is that Apple already has the goods, both in terms of the Intel-based architecture and the great operating system software. What it lacks is the hardware packaging and services that would make the Mac a lot more appealing to business users.

Even three years ago, it would have been totally laughable to write about the possibility of Apple being able to carve out a beachhead on the shores of the corporate marketplace. Now even dyed-in-the-wool Windows shops recognize that a small percentage of companies are moving this way, even if they think such companies are nuts.

It wouldn’t seem so crazy if Apple had some skin in the game. You’ve got to play to win.