New Apple Business platform merges Essentials, Manager, and Connect into one system

Apple has unified several of its business-focused services — Business Essentials, Business Manager, and Business Connect — into a single platform called Apple Business. It offers device management, email and calendar with a custom domain, a company directory, and customer engagement tools across the Apple ecosystem. The service is free in over 200 countries, with optional paid add-ons. A Maps advertising feature is also coming, available to businesses through the platform — initially in the US and Canada only.

Editor's Note: Apple Business looks like a routine product consolidation. But Apple has been doing this for years — first its own processors, then affordable hardware, now free corporate infrastructure. Each step looks modest on its own. Together, they outline a strategy to take on the enterprise market, where Apple has historically lost to Microsoft. A quiet encirclement, with no big announcements.

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