(Image courtesy of The Wall Street Journal)
Perhaps sensing that they’re reaching a peak point in the future where consumers are concerned, Apple has started to focus more attention on small businesses, if recent job postings in search of engineers to put together systems aimed at such clients is to be believed.
The Wall Street Journal has a new report which sheds some light on Apple’s upcoming retail plans, and they appear to involve branching out beyond the consumer segment and into the hearts and minds of small businesses everywhere. Cupertino is actively looking to hire engineers for up to a dozen U.S. retail stores aimed at the small businesses that are the lifeblood of the American economy.
"Thousands of businesses run on Apple products," the posting reads. "Many more would like to, and that's where you come in." According to the article, “The employees would implement computer systems for clients and are expected to be proficient in networking hardware and server platforms.”
These new job positions show that Apple is not letting any dust gather under their feet, which has historically been aimed at consumers and niche segments such as design and media. That should come as good news to the many critics who feel that the company has placed too much emphasis lately on their mobile strategy while the Mac appears to be stagnant in the wake of Mac OS X Snow Leopard’s release.
According to two Apple employees familiar with the company’s new focus, each of Apple’s stores already has at least one salesman proficient in handling local small business accounts. Cupertino has also recruited sales staff from within to work on negotiating leasing and pricing terms with small businesses, a successful experiment that has seen income at those stores more than double.
In keeping with the small business theme, recent Apple stores such as those in Minneapolis and Shanghai actually include “specialized conference rooms” as part of their design, “specifically meant for meetings between sales staff and high-level business executives.”
The new Apple sales jobs could pay up to $80,000 a year and Apple has set up incentive programs in many stores to help grow their small business initiatives.
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