2016 Azbee Awards of Excellence
Category
Print > Impact/Investigative > New England
Awarded to
Lindsey O'Donnell, Assistant Editor; Mark Haranas, Associate Editor; Steve Burke, Editor, News
Entry details
Bad Apple
Issue date (if applicable): 10/12/2015
Publication name: CRN
Publishing company: The Channel Company
Website home page: http://www.crn.com/
Please describe the publication's mission and readership:
CRN serves as the voice of the channel, covering the enterprise technology news that matters most to the solution provider community. Simply reporting tech news from a high-level brings little value to solution providers. CRN readers need to know how mergers and acquisitions, executive shuffles, product launches, and other happenings with their vendor partners will directly impact their reseller businesses.
As an advocate for the channel, CRN quotes solution providers directly impacted by the news in every article published. The CRN staff includes a dozen reporters, either dedicated to a specific segment of IT or to a major technology vendor with a large channel presence, such as Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Dell, and Cisco. The staff also features a video news editor and an editor dedicated to the CRN Test Center, CRN's technology review wing.
Through it's online presence, CRN.com, CRN prides itself on delivering news first and in 2015 published 100 pieces of content that were exclusive to the site.
In addition to daily news, CRN.com publishes a variety of content designed to arm solution providers with the insight they need to better run their business. This content ranges from daily videos to product reviews to dozens of annual research projects spanning every facet of enterprise IT.
CRN.com is also the online home for CRN Magazine and its cover stories, featuring the biggest names in tech, including former Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, Dell Founder and CEO Michael Dell, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise President and CEO Meg Whitman.
Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:
Last August, Cisco and Apple disclosed a partnership to optimize Cisco networks for Apple iOS devices. The deal came on the heels of Apple's enterprise-targeted partnership with IBM the previous year. While both deals signify a step for consumer-focused Apple in the direction of the corporate market, solution providers were left in the dark as to what the enterprise odyssey would mean for the true pioneers of large corporate business sales — the channel.
Appearing in the October 2015 issue of CRN, "Bad Apple" delves into the increasing rift between Apple and its partners, many of whom feel left in the dark about Apple's long-term enterprise strategy, even though they represent the company's best chance for success in the enterprise market.
"Bad Apple" delves into the channel conflict created between Apple partners and the company's retail stores, and examines why the company's authorized resellers aren't getting a big bite of Apple's wealth. "We're out here in the trenches converting PC users to Mac users. But there's no money to be made with Apple products," said one Apple partner. "If I bought Apple stock instead of reselling Apple products, I'd be retired by now."
The story spotlights multiple partners whose relationships appear to be worsening under the rein of CEO Tim Cook at a time when Cook seemingly needs those partners the most. "Bad Apple" also uses exclusive data gleaned from a CRN Intelligence survey of 175 solution providers across Apple's channel ecosystem.
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Bad Apple
Category
Print > Impact/Investigative > New England
Description
Publication name:
CRN
Company:
The Channel Company
Winner Status
- Regional Bronze Award
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