Consumerization of IT favors the Mac
For months now, Mac Blorge has been providing a steady stream of studies, analysis and anecdotes showing a notable uptick in enterprise adoption to the accompaniment of the usual chorus of the nattering nabobs of negativity. Nevertheless, the latest survey shows an ever-growing tide of Mac users that insist on having things their way and not a few companies that are making the switch wholesale.
“After watching this for the last two years, I can say this is a steady, sustained trend. I see no sign of it abating. I’m not going to proclaim that Macs are going to sweep Windows away in a tidal wave, but this is clearly Apple’s best showing in the enterprise in the last 20 years”—Laura DiDio, principal analyst at Information Technology Intelligence Corp (ITIC) via CIO
DiDio was referencing a new ITIC study that shows 68 percent of some 700 companies polled that say they will allow their users to deploy Macs as their work systems in the next 12 months—double the percentage of businesses that answered the same question eight months ago.
The data also shows that nearly one-quarter of the firms surveyed roster 50 or more Macs on their networks—that’s a marked increase over the one-in-four that six months ago said they had 30 or more computers running OS X.
Further, according to the analyst, some of those surveyed acknowledged that their businesses would leave Windows entirely and make the switch to the Mac (2.5 percent) or Linux (0.5 percent).
DiDo said, “Apple has always been considered a ‘cool’ company, what with its iPod and iPhone. But at the same time, this move [into enterprises] is not just a coincidence. Apple has been very vocal about things like the Safari browser and vocal about advanced features and functions of the Mac OS that matter to business, like desktop search and automatic backup.”
Another factor driving adoption is user satisfaction with Apple’s operating system. A ChangeWave survey found that of those using Mac OS X 10.5, 53 percent said they were very satisfied, compared to just 7 percent of Vista users.
Of course, because of rapid advances in virtualization, this technology is also playing a role in enterprise adoption of the Mac, though overall growth is expanding at a much faster rate. ITIC found that 30 percent of Mac enterprise users were running OS X and Windows XP or Vista side-by-side, an increase of only 2 percent over the last half year or so.
As always, this latest report leaves important qualitative questions unanswered. For example, of the growing number of Macs in use, how many arrived in users’ laptop bags and backpacks, and what percentage were purchased by IT departments? Another equally telling statistic I’d like to see is what percentage of IT managers and help desk workers now carry an Apple portable?
Nevertheless, this is good news that, alongside earlier reports highlighting rising small business sales and a rapidly increasing overall market share, shows Apple’s resiliency in this recession, a climate many (experts and trolls alike) said would staunch the Mac’s resurgence.
Viva la revolución…
What’s your take?
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