Apple now offers management and support tools for businesses

Called Apple Business Essentials, it will fully launch in spring of next year

Image: Apple

For businesses that use a majority of Apple products, the company will soon offer a suite of tools intended for small and medium-sized businesses. Apple Business Essentials is the name of the subscription service and points to Apple's increased effort on subscription services.

This new service offers various plans for businesses and is intended for businesses with up to 500 employees, but it will probably be more valued by smaller businesses looking for more control over various teams.

With the service, users will get management, support, and storage tools for their Apple devices. This will be great for businesses with a smaller IT presence but still want options for managing teams, products, and the tools they use on those products.

For example, managers could have one set of tools on their iPhones, while the social media team would be set up with tools more aligned with their responsibilities.

Apple is not reinventing the wheel here, simply trying to attract a new revenue stream. Other companies offer comprehensive tools for managing teams' devices with updates and for deploying new software. Hexnode, for example, offers many of the same features as Apple but works across both Android and iOS.

Depending on your use case, something like Hexnode might be better, as it offers a bit more flexibility, whereas Apple keeps everything close in its own ecosystem. Also, options like Hexnode can scale to enterprise-level, whereas Apple's product only scales to 500 users.

For those heavily invested in iOS and macOS, however, Apple's upcoming offering is definitely appealing. In addition to management tools and cloud storage through iCloud, users will also be able to bundle Apple Care+, which gives access to phone support, limited IT training, and a small number of device repairs.

According to ZDNet, Apple Business Essentials fully launches in spring of 2022, though it is now available in beta.