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June 27, 2008

business

Macs (kind of) conquer business: 80% of companies using Macs

Posted Jun. 27, ’08, 5:58 AM PT by Aaron Freedman
Category | Business
CubicleMac.jpgRemember when people used to say “Macs will never dominate the computer market because businesses won’t adopt them”? While we knew all along those people were talking out of their lower back region, now there’s some statistics to support our case.

According to a Yankee Group Research Inc. survey of over 700 senior IT admins and executives, 8 in 10 business said they have Macs in-house. Considering that only about two years ago, in early 2006, only 47% of IT professionals used Macs in their business, this is huge news.And, if you’re wondering whether these business “using” Macs have only one or two Apple machines, 21% of the surveyed firms said they were using more than 50 Macs. According to Laura DiDio, a research fellow at Yankee Group Research, “This isn’t Mickey Mouse; it’s not just onesies and twosies anymore. Apple’s graduated into the big league.”

With all the statistics on how business are using Macs, the question now becomes why? One answer to that question is the ability run Windows, either XP or Vista, on Macs. With 28% of the surveyed firms saying that they ran Windows in virtual machines on their Macs, it seems that companies like VMWare and Parallels have a new and expanding market in the corporate world, not just the consumer one. Apple’s own Boot Camp utility isn’t cut out of the fun either, with 22% of businesses saying that they use the dual-booting technology on their Macs.

It seems, at least according to the information provided by Yankee Group Research, that the era of a PC-dominated enterprise world is ending. Whether it be because of support for Windows, better reliability (80% of the surveyors rated Mac hardware reliability as “excellent” or “very good”), or something else, Macs are sweeping up the business world. And, it’s not just Macs. With MobileMe and the new enterprise features in the iPhone 2.0 software update, Apple is beginning to challenge Microsoft as the undisputed leader of computing in the corporate world.

12 Comments

Kelmon said:

"With MobileMe and the new enterprise features in the iPhone 2.0 software update, Apple is beginning to challenge Microsoft as the undisputed leader of computing in the corporate world."

Feel free to save this quote: Apple will never challenge Microsoft as the undisputed leader of computing in the corporate world.

As much as I love my MBP, and try as much as possible to stay within the realms of OS X rather than booting up Windows under VMWare, Apple has no chance of surpassing Windows. The reason for this is very simple. While Apple has a great OS, and access to some great software applications, it has no real platform. Microsoft, for all their issues and annoyances, have built a very strong platform of clients, servers, applications and services, that allows business to get things done with everything working together. Apple, with the greatest respect in the world, has OS X and OS X Server, and that just doesn't cut it. The pro applications are typically "best of breed", but beyond this there really isn't a whole lot.

I honestly don't see Apple challenging Microsoft in the corporate world, unless they are prepared to invest very heavily in developing a platform of products and services that competes against Microsoft's current offerings and beyond. More likely they will continue with the current strategy of integrating Macs into Windows networks by supporting the likes of Active Directory and Exchange. This is a much cheaper and safer strategy.

Love them or hate them, Microsoft did a good job in building the Windows platform and there's nothing out there at the moment to challenge their position.

June 27, 2008 8:17 AM
Paul Author Profile Page said:

Some companies "get it".

For instance Google and Facebook gives new employees a choice of a Mac or PC, and Mozilla is pretty much 100% Mac (citation? My friends and ex-colleagues who work for these companies).

June 27, 2008 8:19 AM
Tony D said:

This is one reason why Apple will never license OS X. Imagine if all those Macs were cheap clones (and they would be), Apple would be out thousands but would gain only hundreds per customer. Granted some industries, notably film and graphic design, will stick with the real thing but clones would rule. Just simple economics.

June 27, 2008 11:09 AM
Missing_DLL Author Profile Page said:

I fully agree with Kelmon, Microsoft = Corporations
and Apple will never compete with Microsoft in that department.

Even more funny is the validation of Mac's in the workplace in that they run Windows!!! I can't even believe the Apple fan boys are standing on this point to support Mac's in the workplace. Accept us because we can run Windows!!! I got a mac to get away from Windows, if i wanted to run windows, i would have not got a mac in the first place.

June 27, 2008 4:57 PM
mitchell magouirk said:

Businesses go to Mac not so much because it can run windows(28% virtualization per this story),but more because they CAN do business WITHOUT Microsoft and Windows.

June 28, 2008 8:52 AM
Neil Anderson Author Profile Page said:

Yeah, but with a Mac you can run both on one machine. It's awesome!

June 28, 2008 11:05 AM
Will Bonney said:

Actually, you can run OS X (certainly the Intel based versions) on any intel based machine. The only thing that stops it happening more often is the boot enviroment and nothing more. It's why apple have always locked the open use of OS X - if they let it run on any machine, they would likely lose revenue on hardware. More so as custom built machines are still ulimately more configurable than a Mac. Double edged sword for apple and they know it. When it comes to the corporate enviroment, scalability, interoperatability and wise support of software and systems are the most important aspects. Mac's look cool, but corporations have no requirement for cool when it comes to the behind scene reality. Most used high end Database servers are SUN running either Unix or Linux on muliprocessor based units or farms, Most used corporate DB SAP & Oracle. Smaller enviroments use Windows based servers, multiprocessor farms or clusters, running SQL. Most commonly used mail servers are Domino or Exchange - Somtimes, in fact often, you'll see servers running unix on the DMZ/Internet , using mailer demon of some description, running into a front end of Domino or Exchange for the users. Financial trading systems, telecoms systems, project management and workflow, high end CAD, Architecture, Pharmacutical. The list goes on but rarely, if at all, these systems are not running on OS X - Mac's and likely never will be. For anyone pointing out that a Mac can run windows but you can't run OS X (not a mac) pn anything else. It's actually making the point that more people are using windows, even if they use a mac to do it. Pretty sure the corporate factor will and always will be, a windows heavy enviroment, followed by UNIX, Linux et al.

June 29, 2008 5:12 AM
John Swift said:

Apple doesn't need to compete against Microsoft. Apple has found a new and better way which Microsoft doesn't even begin to comprehend. The future is no longer with big behemoths's like Microsoft but rather with a loose coalition of smaller to medium sized companies working together to go a different way.

June 29, 2008 10:48 AM
Kelmon said:

@Neil

Definitely a case of "preaching to the choir". I use my MBP at work for everything and love the flexibility that VMWare gives me. Still, even with this flexibility I can't see Macs making much headway into business for the following reasons:

1. You need to be able to translate flexibility into Return On Investment - how much is this flexibility really worth?

2. Replacing Windows in the client doesn't address the other aspects of the Windows platform, such as servers, services and applications.

3. Macs are relatively expensive already given the kinds of hardware discounts that any substantial company can wring out of the likes of Dell and HP, and adding the cost of VMWare/Parallels and Windows licenses only makes matters worse.

While I like to try and do most of my stuff in OS X, a lot of what I do at work requires Windows, purely so that I can interact with the Windows platform that my corporation has deployed. In order for the Mac to make any pentration worth knowing about into this market it needs to be either interact with the Windows platform seamlessly, or replace the Windows platform entirely. Needing to use Windows on a Mac just means that the company should have just bought a Windows PC to begin with and saved themselves the additional costs and hassles.

As much as I'd love to see the adoption of the Mac, I am, unfortunately, a realist and work in IT project management, so I know that there is little way that I could sell Macs to my directors. The only way that I could sell Macs as something to be adopted is if they'd work seamlessly in our existing environment, or if the Mac platform could do something more than Windows. Seamless interaction with Windows servers, services and applications is possible in the future, but I don't see an alternative Mac platform appearing that will compete with Windows.

June 30, 2008 12:30 AM
Will Bonney said:

Neil,
It's about what's in place already, the standards of software, hardware, OS's, the connectivity and interoperatibility of all the systems involved. Also something as basic as the backup of all those systems and enviroments. Legato is the main, multiplatform backup software on the market, and all the clients/systems it connects to require client software to be installed so it can then be backed up by the Legato server. It's not about a group of companies deciding to create a solution so macs can enter the corporate enviroment, it's about the corporate enviroment accepting and using that solution. It's a nice idea, and they may get a few companies interested, but for a while if not forever, it will not be taken mainstream or in any great number. Same goes for virtualization - it's a great tool, and it's been used for over 10 years, but not to run something like an MS exchange server, with 500-1000 user mailboxes and diaries etc in place. Same goes for databases et al. Reality is, no matter how hard Apple can try, or a group of companies wanting to make Macs more corporate, the installed users, enviroments and systems required for corporate business, will always be windows, unix and linux heavy, running on generic windows pc's, generic windows servers, and unix/linux high end servers.

July 1, 2008 1:49 PM
Kelmon said:

@Will

I'd agree with most of the sentiments of your comment, with the exception of the final aspect. It is perfectly possible for the Mac to be accepted into the corporate environment BUT they must demonstrate a clear business case that shows that they are a better solution than the competition. Right now that just isn't possible for the reasons that you and I have already outlined. However, I don't think that Apple will never be accepted into business, simply that they need to do a lot more work to deliver the software and services that businesses need, either to work with existing environments or to replace them entirely. In reality I don't think that this will happen, but if the will and the money was there to really drive the Mac platform at business then it could happen. I don't think there is an IT director out there that likes the costs of a Microsoft centric infrastructure, but if Apple is to penetrate that market they need to produce a platform that is simply better than Windows at a lower cost. It's a big ask but if a better platform was introduced at a lower cost then it would be awfully tempting.

July 3, 2008 2:37 AM

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