In all the times I’ve commented about Apple’s lack of penetration into the core of the business market, I’ve remarked about the apparent lack of a large, dedicated sales staff calling regularly on such companies and the unavailability of specialty models that would fit certain niches. This would surely include that middle-of-the road expandable Mac with the guts of the iMac, a pair of internal expansion ports, and no display.

However, it’s all too clear that Apple has other ideas, and mine clearly can’t and probably won’t influence their vision. But that doesn’t mean the Mac and the iPhone are poor choices for your business. It just means that Apple is going after the enterprise from the back door.

Certainly, there is the corporate art department, where the majority of business Macs see service. Even where management and IT people have banned Macs from the rest of the company, graphic designers and video editors clearly have conveyed their views that most will not accept a PC box, even a high-end one, when a Mac Pro can be had.

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All right, I have said in these pages and on the radio show that I’m not really interested in buying an iPhone right away, that an ordinary mobile phone works fine for me. Yet, the iPhone feeding frenzy makes it near-impossible not to talk about it. Even Paris Hilton must feel jealous at all the press Apple is getting!

Just looking at the marketing campaign, you have to envy the masterful approach. Apple didn’t inundate the media with paid ads anticipating its arrival. The ads that were placed were mostly low-key. Just just show the phone and a few of its flashy features, and the tech press did the rest.

Why is so much attention focused on a wireless phone?

This can, I suppose, become fodder for college-level marketing classes, but I think the answer might be a whole lot simpler. Despite all the tens of billions of dollars the wireless providers have invested in their systems all these years, service still sucks. Indeed, the most severe criticisms leveled in the early reviews of the iPhone have focused, laser-like, on its weakest link, which is the quality of the AT&T network. Certainly, readers of Consumer Reports will recall that the company formerly known as Cingular rates at or near the bottom when it comes to audio quality, network reliability and customer service.

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It has to be frustrating. Every single day, there are hundreds of newarticles written about the iPhone, about what it is, what it isn’t, and lots of stuff way in between. About the only news that actually concerns Apple’s former “main” product line, personal computers, is the recent report that sales of MacBooks and MacBook Pros have topped 14% in the U.S. retail market. That would be unheard of just a year or two ago.

Sure, Apple’s notebooks just got minor speed bump enhancements, so they are current with Intel’s state of the art; well at least the MacBook Pros, which sport the new Santa Rosa chipsets and all. So it’s not as if Apple hasn’t been lying low.

Then again, there hasn’t been any action on the iMac front in months, and I have several friends and clients that are looking to buy one once they’re assured that the model they choose won’t become obsolete the very next day. But other than enhancing the processors, graphic chips and maybe adding more drive storage and RAM, what is Apple to do? Make the white case brushed aluminum? Does that really make all that much of a difference, except to those of who feel that externals need to be upgraded every so often to stay relevant?

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Years ago, a famous old-time comedian said, “Everybody wants to get into the act!” Well, you’d have to add a strong New York accent and his trademark gravely voice to get the picture, but the words should be sufficient even if you’re too young to remember that classic phrase.

We’re just a few days away from the arrival of iPhone, so talk show hosts have decided that they have had enough of Paris Hilton or the political issue of the day, so why not talk about Apple’s much-anticipated gadget?

The problem is that some of those talking heads have no clue about the product whatever, beyond, say, the small form factor, touch screen and other things you’d catch in one of those increasingly ubiquitous TV ads. So not having any information, and not having enough incentive to spend a minute or so to check Apple’s site for some substance, they decide to wing it.

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