Mac workplace penetration loosens Window's stranglehold on enterprise
Analyst Michael Silver, a Gartner Research vice president and research director, outlined the firm's outlook on the enterprise desktop space saying that not only is Window's dominance being threatened by tablets, but a shift in user demand is pushing an influx of Macs into the workplace, reports MacWorld.
Silver hedged his statements, saying that while IT managers can no longer ignore Apple's platform, "[the desktop] is still 90-something percent Windows," and "thin clients will have 4 percent or so by the end of the year."
Estimates see Mac's share of the enterprise market hovering at around 5 percent, but the consumerization of IT is slowly forcing companies to accept Apple's products as part of the everyday workflow. According to Gartner research, 60 percent of companies currently don't allow Macs in the office, though the tide is changing as 64 percent of businesses will likely allow them to be adopted over the next few years.
Leading the charge in bringing the Mac into the workplace is a combination of demand for Apple's mobile devices and a more affordable computing options for OS X. A recent study from Good Technology found that the top-six most-activated devices in enterprise were all Apple products, with the iPhone and iPad accounting for 79 percent of total activations.
Traditional views frown upon Apple's computer system because of higher perceived costs associated with using the platform. "It used to be, 'How do we keep Macs out,'" Silver said, but the prices have come down and the playing field has evened out.
While an average Mac setup runs $1,622, a Windows machine costs $1,513 and software makers charge slightly more for Apple-centric products. Average IT labor expenditure for Macs is lower with $636 compared to Windows' $781, however companies report a wide variety of experiences in this department.
Silver notes that the days of saying "no" to Mac in enterprise are coming to an end as Apple computers are seeing a surge in popularity with upper management and executives.
"Saying 'no' could be a career-ending decision," Silver said.
35 Comments
Mac + Support: $2,258 WinPC + Support: $2,294 Does that include the actual costs for apps, like virus protection, or is that just for the base purchase. Also, that's about double the average WinPC cost for consumers if I remember correctly. Surely a business can't be buying those $400 desktops and notebooks you find at pretty much every store with an electronics department but that still seems higher than expected. I wonder if "Windows machine" also refers to Win servers.
This just in....
IDC predicts Windows will dominate enterprise with a 100% market share by 2016.
[quote name="Dickprinter" url="/t/150517/mac-workplace-penetration-loosens-windows-stranglehold-on-enterprise#post_2122351"]This just in.... IDC predicts Windows will dominate enterprise with a 100% market share by 2016. [/quote] If we're using the IDC's rationale we'll have to predict that iPads replace nearly all Windows Servers by 2016.
Just give it a few more years for today's 20-somethings to become corporate warriors. Tables will be turned.
Given a *choice*, what employee actually *wants* to use Windows?
It's something we've had to put up with for years. That basically describes Windows and all its parts: something to be put up with.
But this isn't the same market we saw 10-15 years ago.
Funny thing is, MS still thinks it is.