Government getting hip to the Mac
Depending on who you choose to believe, Apple owns up to 9.5 percent of the general PC market and can even claim up to 4.5 percent of the corporate sector, according to Forrester Research data, up from just 1.1 percent in 2006. Now comes evidence that government, at least at the local level, is also hearing the call of the fairer platform.
However, like Mac adoption in the enterprise, the push is being lead by users in a trend that is commonly referred to as the “consumerization of IT”.
“It’s actual users bringing those technologies in, rather than the IT department bringing them in,” said Charles Smulders, managing vice president of end user client computing group Gartner told Government Technology. “That has given rise to a greater number of Apple products being part of the enterprise ecosystem.”
Moreover, there is a growing awareness of the superficiality of the Mac vs PC debate, as well as questioning of long held prerogatives of IT departments.
Moving forward
“I think the debate between Macs versus PCs is over,” said Vivek Kundra, Washington, DC’s chief technology officer (CTO), who has been tipped as a shortlist candidate for US CTO position in the Obama Administration. “Rather than spending a fortune on purely enterprise technology, I’ve simply moved forward and said, ‘Why can’t we use consumer technology in the enterprise space?’”
Meanwhile in San Antonio, Texas, that city is getting IT up to speed on supporting Macs because users are being given the opportunity to transition to the fairer platform. That said, city CTO, Hugh Miller, has noticed a thaw not just in user and support attitudes, but also on the part of Apple itself.
“They invited me to their annual large sales conference [in Fall 2008] to speak to their people about what the enterprise is looking for in products and how they can enhance their approach to enterprises and to executives,” said Miller.
So, is there any chance Macs will soon supplant PCs in the enterprise and government? At the moment, that isn’t even a possibility for a host of reasons, both real and imagined, including a lack of applications, a perception that Apple-branded computers cost more and the simple fact that Windows means employment for IT people…
What’s your take?
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February 9th, 2009
Just in case the applications cover all the SO as well it could be a chance
February 9th, 2009
Just would like to respond to your last comment:
“At the moment, that isn’t even a possibility for a host of reasons, both real and imagined, including a lack of applications, a perception that Apple-branded computers cost more and the simple fact that Windows means employment for IT people…”
1) There is no “lack of applications”. Most applications are available in both Mac & Windows versions. For those odd apps that are only available for Windows, there is always a choice of comparable Mac apps. And, of course, you can always run any Windows apps concurrently on a Mac.
2) The “perception that Apple-branded computers cost more” is an old myth. Here is an excellent article on the “PC Mech” Web site that does cost comparisons between Macs & Windows computers:
http://www.pcmech.com/article/is-the-mac-overpriced/
3) “And the simple fact that Windows means employment for IT people”. I think you’ve hit on the heart of the matter with this one. If the government & corporate sectors switched from Windows computers to Macs, it would decimate both the IT and virus software businesses.
February 10th, 2009
good comparison, thanks for the link
February 10th, 2009
1) You are only correct about office apps. Most meta apps used for accounting, financial and engineering don’t exist for Macs. Buying a Mac to run Windows is a waste of money in commodity desktops to churn out invoices or access middleware ERP or send email.
2) Apple has deliberate holes in it’s lineup to keep from cannibalizing sales from more profitable models. I doubt they want people buying Minis, and it sure makes iMacs look like a better choice for the coin. Nice strawman going into the form factor to limit the huge advantage in hardware choices. I would like to see one of these comparisons start with a PC and then match a Mac to it instead of the other way around.
As far as the 3rd point goes I wrote these:
http://forums.macworld.com/message/676053
February 14th, 2009
If enterprise went Macs then the end user would be happy and productive — and what would that do to IT fiefdoms?