APPLE TO SERVICE SMALL BUSINESSES THROUGH APPLE STORES

Apple announced its Joint Venture service this weekend to Apple Store employees. The new offering aims to bring small business customers into retail stores, providing more business-centric and personalized services. Users can enroll in Joint Venture for an annual fee of $499.

What does that steep fee get you? The fee covers up to five users (additional users can be added for $99 per person per year) and provides priority service at Apple’s Genius Bars (skip the line), phone support from business-focused Geniuses, loaner machines for repairs taking over 24-hours, and access to customized workshops. The new service is set to roll out beginning March 2nd.

MICROSOFT SECURITY ESSENTIALS FREE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Microsoft has some good news for small business.  It's popular anti-malware/anti-virus software Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), which is free to consumers, will be free to small business beginning in early October.  Microsoft is defining a small business, for MSE anyway, as one that has 10 or fewer PCs. Microsoft claims that enterprise security software is too expensive, complicated, and hard to use for these organizations, hence its decision to expand the reach of MSE. [Ars Technica]