Survey says 74 percent of enterprises to add Macs
The economy swirling down the bowl, joblessness is rising and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight for the bad news. Still, for some companies, such as our favorite fruit company, the times are less bad than for others.
Enterprise Desktop Alliance (EDA) has announced results of a recent survey of enterprise IT administrators, citing user preference and productivity gains, that indicates 74 percent plan to add more of Apple, Inc’s iconic computers. Further, the data also shows that nearly 60 percent of the organizations currently stable 100 or more Macs. Laura DiDio, principal analyst for the Information Technology Intelligence Corp. notes:
The importance of integration and management parity with PCs is an indication that the Mac users realize that getting Macs is easier to do if they can be managed. The broad trends of Macs continuing their penetration are reinforced by the results of this survey.
To date, enterprise Mac adoption has largely been driven by users, a trend commonly referred to as the consumerization of IT, with little to no support from Apple.
And, that’s where the rub lies. Whereas Mac users in general are fairly self sufficient bunch — yes, we all know a few of hapless type — and generally not shy about which tools kept them productive and happy, this raucous 10 percent of the computer using public does not an enterprise strategy make.
Still, if one in ten enterprise users does go over to the Mac — perhaps a bit optimistic — that would still be a major coup for Apple, representing billions of dollars in new revenues and an even greater reason for Steve Jobs et al to consider getting behind their customers in cubicles.
In the mean time, Apple can take solace in the fact that EDA’s survey also found that only 2 percent of IT administrators surveyed intend to reduce the number of Macs they support…
What’s your take?
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March 10th, 2009
Users are driving the trend.