Much to the chagrin of IT doofuses worldwide, Apple’s superior Macs continue to invade the workplace.
“Mac shipments grew faster than PC shipments for the 25th consecutive time during the June quarter,” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD. “And while that growth was slower overall than it has been in the past [thanks to Apples’ iPad], it continues to occur in areas like enterprise, where Apple has long been searching for inroads.”
“During the June quarter, Mac shipments to business in the U.S. grew 56.6 percent, even as overall PC sales slipped 8.8 percent, according to Needham analyst Charlie Wolf,” Paczkowski reports. “Meanwhile, Mac business shipments worldwide increased 22.1 percent, amid a 4.5 percent decline in overall business PC sales. That’s significant growth, though the Mac is still far, far outdistanced by its enterprise rivals. In the U.S., the Mac’s share of the business market was just 5.9 percent in June — and that was an all-time high.”
MacDailyNews Take: Massive headroom for growth, Wall Street’s favorite word.
Paczkowski reports, “As Wolf notes, Mac adoption in the business sector was pretty slow through 2007. But after? ‘Something did happen around the beginning of 2008 to propel Mac sales in the business market, and it seems reasonable to infer that it was Apple’s other products, most notably the iPhone and iPad, rather than the Mac itself that contributed to the significant share gains,’ Wolf explains. ‘In our opinion, the role of the iPad cannot be overemphasized. Some observers estimate the iPad sales in the business market might represent up to half of all iPad sales.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Of course the iPad and iPhone provide beneficial halo effects for the Mac, but how soon the analysts forget: In June 2005, Apple announced the switch to Intel processors. Apple released Boot Camp in 2006. The transition was complete by December 2006 – a remarkable feat. By the beginning of 2008, we had well-reviewed fast virtualization products that allowed Mac users to slum it with Windows and the fact had finally begun to sink in with the general public that, with a Mac you got two machines for the price of one quality computer; only with a Mac, could one could run the world’s largest software library.
Back in June 2005, our own SteveJack predicted, as usual, pretty much exactly what would happen:
These Intel-based Macs will help expand Mac market share, if average people can be made to understand that the machines can run both Windows and Mac operating systems natively… For most people, Macs will become the “2 for the price of 1″ computer. Even for the nearly illiterate personal computer buyers, with a little Apple-supplied education via marketing, it would make little sense to buy a limited Windows-only machine from the box assemblers like Dell, Gateway, etc. Give them their “Windows Insecurity Blanket” upfront and they’ll throw it away themselves after they realize how tattered and threadbare it is in comparison it to Apple’s Mac OS X… One more thing… don’t overlook the enterprise ramifications. It may just get a whole lot easier to justify Apple Macs at work. – SteveJack, MacDailyNews, June 10, 2005
Said Wolf, “No doubt many mobile professionals purchased an iPhone for their personal use, which cast a favorable light on Apple’s app ecosystem. Arriving in April 2010, the iPad undoubtedly reinforced the more positive perception of Apple products, encouraging some IT professionals to consider the Mac in their purchasing decisions.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
Steve Jack obviously sold his soul to the devil at some point in return for a crystal ball.
As partisan as MDN obviously is, it doesn’t mean they aren’t objective, and their predictive content is phenomenally reliable. No pundit, no analyst, no broker can match MDN’s record of accuratey estimating of what will happen in this sector.
I know what you mean m159.
I bought my first mac, an iMac, in 1997. I was so captivated by the design and ease of use I did a little research and bought some shares.
I’m no stockbroker, but I just kinda knew Apple would thrive – there was far too much talent in the design team for them to fail.
My shares are now worth… well I dunno, at least 100x more than they were in 1997!!!!
Maybe we’ll get back our XServes.
I’m still lost on that decision…..with Macs supposedly getting more and more popular now is the time to have the Xserves. Made no sense to me with doing away with them. I am due for an upgrade was hoping the rumor about the MacPro/Rackmount server was true. They better do something soon, because I’m not putting a Mac Mini in place of the Xserves.
I am an IT professional specializing in Infrastructure and Workstation. I could see this coming from years ago, but not just in relation to Apple. VMware basically opened the door to become platform independent. As we go more cloud based, it will become more so.
I currently use my personal MAcBook Air as my only work device.
In the near future, unless you absolutely need a full desktop Enterprises will give you a mobile device or desktop Thin Client and send you on your way.
It’s simply too much of a capital outlay for a fleet to go all MAC. It may increase purchases of MACs since some higher ups and spoiled departments will want them, but for most of the fleet it isn’t cost effective and may not be.
Now, thats only speaking to thecompany owned devices. BYOD policies will change how some Infrastructure pieces are Engineered and will force IT teams to adopt support models, and security standards. If users want to supply their own then companies would be dumb not to take advantage of that software/hardware cost savings.
Most Enterprise users might still be well served by an IBM 3270.
No offense Tim, but your Windows is showing. I think you have Mac(intosh) mixed up with Media Access Controller (MAC).
Tim, please get the name right – Mac, not MAC. Come all the way over to the bright side…
IT Departments fight Macs, because they take away their reason for being.
I stil keep taking Microsoft courses for IT ‘Professionals’ and constantly ask myself why…there certainly is no joy in it.
ask myself “Can a find some sucker to pay me for knowing this bullshit?”
SteveJack had it right when describing the essential ingredient for increasing Mac adoption in the business community: If average people can be made to understand that [Macs] can run both Windows and Mac operating systems natively…”
There are a LOT more existing PC users than people who have no computer at all, so Apple should focus its advertising on attracting PC users. Create TV commercials with a beautiful computer doing interesting things, with Windows clearly in the background. The camera should just watch the desktop, and follow the cursor. Then have the PC operator/user move the cursor to a menu item or icon … then BOOM! the PC transforms into a Macintosh. Copy an image and text from a PC document … then BOOM! paste it into a Mac document. Click on a PC document (icon) and import it natively in a Mac program. Conduct a Google search for “Windows viruses and malware” and show the extent of the problem. Then … BOOM! do the same for “Macintosh viruses and malware.” Another commercial should show someone from the corporate IT office telling mid-level managers about the latest generation of PC’s the company is getting ready to purchase, and how much they’re saving per unit by not buying Macs … then BOOM! one of those managers asks about the lifetime cost of each computer, after the costs of dealing with viruses, malware and more frequent breakdowns are taken into account. Show PC users working on a big project, sharing large files among back and forth (etc.), but complaining on how slow the work is going. Then BOOM, one member of the group ‘discovers’ Thunderbolt technology that could speed up the work. And he also discovers that when new technology comes to the computing world, Apple is typically first to adopt it.
The key is showing PC users that it is NO BIG DEAL to switch to Mac, and after doing so your life is better. I believe that ten really good 30-second commercials would create a huge amount of buzz in the corporate world, and generate big sales. The commercials should be aired daily/hourly for 1-2 months on CNBC, Bloomberg and other broadcasts/shows that appeal disproportionately to business managers.
Meanwhile, forget about airing generic “Mac is great” commercials with no particular target audience. That’s now how to sell product.
Holy Cow! This Walt Mossberg review of Parallels (that lets Macs run PC applications) is very timely for this particular subject:
online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443847404577631503443643534.html
Nice job, MDN, just ignore the numbers that you don’t like.
The Apple share in the business market is 6%. It’s easy to show impressive growth when you’re starting from almost nothing.
Yes, Ballmer does like his strategy. He has armies of IT schmucks who choose the cheapest computers to rent from Dell or HP. Macs aren’t even on their radar screen, except the occasional executive that selects an iPad to show he’s keeping up with the Joneses’ kids.