Dean Hager of Apple device management firm Jamf predicts Windows will no longer be the dominant enterprise platform, and Apple will take its place.
Dean Hager of Jamf
Hager has previously praised Apple's competitor to Jamf, Apple Business Essentials. Now that he is about to stand down, he's predicting Apple will topple Windows in corporations.
"No matter which way you look at it, Windows is a declining ecosystem and has been for 20 years," Hager told ComputerWorld. "That's not a knock at Windows, it's a statement of fact."
"In 10 years' time, Windows will not be the dominant ecosystem," he said. "Apple is coming up because it already dominates the mobile enterprise."
"When I joined Jamf in 2015, I thought some pretty special things were going to happen with Apple in the enterprise," continued Hager. "But I think even my predictions would have fallen far short of what has actually happened in the last eight years."
Hager's point is partly that he says Windows has no mobile device to equal the iPhone, and so can't be what he calls an "endpoint leader." It can't dominate because it isn't competing across the platforms enterprise users want.
But it's also that issue of the customer and their needs.
"We live in an environment where people using the technology have a stronger voice than they've ever had in the history of the corporate world," he said. "And ultimately that voice will prevail."
"[Users] will choose the technology that they want, and this just wasn't true 20 or even 10 years ago," he continued. "But the world has changed, employees have a choice, and those organizations that don't allow that choice are falling behind today."
Following the launch of Apple Business Essentials, aimed at smaller firms, Jamf has added a Jamf Fundamentals plan for the same market.