Six Apart has released a new version of its Enterprise package of Movable Type. Version 1.5 continues to try to set itself up as “the most advanced business blogging platform” through addition of LDAP authentication, support and administration for thousands of users, multiple databases, and plug-in architecture.

The company even goes as far as to says that among Fortune 500 companies with blogs, between 75% and 80% use a SixApart product like Movable Type or Typepad.

Over on Read/Write Web, there is some interesting details between Anil Dash, the VP of SixApart , Chris Alden, EVP and GM of Movable Type, and Richard MacManus of Read/Write Web.

I noted to Chris and Anil that the brand of Movable Type appears to be changing. It seems like Movable Type (the system) is being positioned as more of a business blogging platform these days. Chris replied that MT is “good for advanced blogging needs, it doesn’t necessarily mean for businesses.” He cited the usage of MT by power bloggers.

Anil likened MT to the Nikon D80 camera, which is a pro level tool. He said most people who use that are probably not professional photographers, but they aspire to that level of quality, expressiveness, etc. So he said MT is “a professional level tool, whether you’re a fortune 500 company that has 10,000 bloggers on the intranet using MT Enterprise, or somebody like you or me - we’re serious individual or small publishers, our blog is a big part of our professional lives and MT is the right tool for the job.”

This is where I have to admit that I am a WordPress fanboy, not only because it was the first software I used for blogging, but also because I have had nothing but problems with Movable Types among all the installs I log into.

While I also don’t see WordPress being a big in the corporate world just yeat, I see that the shift could someday happen, and so Six Apart should not be too cocky.

I have to admit though, creating an Enterprise edition of their software was a smart way to go for Six Apart. It is a growing segment, highly profitable, and easy to market as the corporate world goes a little blog crazy. Now if only they could take some time to come back to the normal users and fix some more things that are still really buggy in Movable Type for us non-corporate types.

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