Apple Poised to Introduce ‘Joint Venture,’ a Service for Small Businesses

The rumored meeting for Apple retail store employees has been confirmed by several sources. The details are now out: Apple has trained staffers to offer advanced and priority technical support to small businesses, in what is the company's upcoming "Joint Venture" service.

Earlier this month, an Apple-centric source of insider information claimed to have heard from people familiar with Apple’s retail plans that the company had asked employees to sign non-disclosure forms for a secret, internal meeting.

At the time, it was believed the meeting was tasked with training staffers on the new capabilities posed by products set to be introduced at a later event.

In the meantime, Apple launched new MacBook Pros and confirmed an iPad 2 event for March 2nd, yet it has now been revealed that said retail meeting had nothing to do with these announcements.

A program setting customers back $499 per year for up to five Macs and $99 per year for every additional system, Joint Venture offers Genius Bar telephone support and priority access, which enables customers to receive call-in technical support from Apple Geniuses rather than having to make a trip to their local store.

Customers can opt to walk in the store as well, at which point they will receive priority access for in-person consultations, according to reports.

Under the terms of the program, Apple will also take it upon itself to loan computers for every repair that is scheduled to take more than 24 hours.

Loaner Macs are reportedly 15-inch MacBook Pros which they can take wherever they need to work with them.

The agreement also includes workshops and setup, which can effectively enable small businesses to increase the effectiveness of their Mac-based solutions.

Apple Geniuses are assigned to customers in need of setup advice. Activities range from data transfers to configuring Microsoft Exchange and other services.