“Last month, Brandchannel.com dubbed Apple Computer Inc. the ‘brand with the most global impact.’ But you’d never know it by looking at corporate desktops today,” Mark Hall writes for Computerworld. “Windows machines are the undisputed personal computers of choice for corporate IT, the biggest single market for PCs. Research conducted by Framingham, Mass.-based IDC underscores the fact. IDC ranked the maker of Macintosh machines No. 10 on its market-share list in 2004, two spots behind the Chinese company Lenovo Group Ltd.—and the list was prepared before Lenovo’s planned acquisition of IBM’s PC unit.”
Hall writes, “Yet despite significant efforts by Windows suppliers, Apple still remains a dominant player in vertical market segments such as publishing and digital media. And with the growing popularity of its low-cost Xserve Unix servers, Apple has an opportunity to compete head-to-head with industry leaders like Dell Inc. inside the data center for general-purpose applications such as e-mail and Web serving.”
“At Genentech Inc., a multibillion-dollar biotechnology firm in South San Francisco, Mark Jeffries oversees nearly 2,500 Macs. The senior systems specialist says the OS X machines are used ‘for various purposes,’ from scientists doing pure research to executives toying with spreadsheets,” Hall writes. “According to Jeffries, the Mac’s place in the market today is the result in large measure to Windows-centric IT shops that ‘have always been trying to find some reason to get rid of Macs.'”
“Most Mac technical support personnel argue that the machines are far simpler to manage than Windows boxes. For example, when Genentech went through a recent upgrade on both its Mac and Windows systems, one technician could completely upgrade six OS X machines per day, while on the Windows side, one person could complete only two or sometimes three PCs each day. And for the entire company, seven technicians handle nearly 2,500 Macintoshes,” Hall writes. “Eighty percent of Digital Strata Inc.’s business is Windows users. Dan Fischler, president of the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based IT consultancy, estimates that one tech support person can manage 50 to 75 Macs, whereas ideally, there should be one for every 20 to 25 Windows PCs.”
Hall writes, “No one expects Macs to displace Windows as the desktop of choice for general-purpose computing. But Apple has deflected intense competition in its core vertical markets. And, for the first time, it’s becoming a credible contender as an alternative for servers inside the data center.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness – December 20, 2003
This story is so in the face of those idiots who said that Macs in the corporate world were irrelevant. Although this story says that the Windows PC might never be replaced as the desktop of choice, Isriously think, that once companies have gone the XServe route, they will seriously consider macs when the time comes to upgrade their PCs.
With this bit of info, it has become evident that Apple’s strategy is to gain inroads through the home computer user, by offering a convincing entry level mac, and then to change the existing server policy and install Mac Servers, then meeting in the middle and giving the Dulls and Microschrotts of this world something to think about.
Brought to you by the magic word of “green”, As in the others are becoming green with envy.
Apple needs to update their Power Mac big time!
The idea that an Apple will replace the default standard based hardware and software offered by Microsoft is just not conceivable.
The “real IT world” is built around the superior products and services that Windows offers. We have invested our entire existence on this plat form – we are not going to recommend a sub-standard solution.
We need the .NET framework and the 64 bit Longhorn server OS. Apple has nothing to offer the enterprise.
No Network Tools
No System Admin Tools
and Nothing that even comes close to .NET
Apple actually has to use .NET to run its I-Tunes music store.
You may think the rules are changing but we in the “real IT world” are still calling the shots, and we are not going to allow any OS that doesn’t even have a built in anti-virus protection. (Longhorn does and XP SP 3.2.1 will too.)
©
Sputnik — I can’t figure out if you’re being serious, or just a moron.
But either way . . . it’s clear you’re a dork.
Sputnik! Long time, no post. Welcome back! I look forward to many more humourous posts.
Wow, Sputnik is back.
Hooray! Sputnick’s back. We’ve really missed you. Come on, tell us, why so long. Were you doing time, in rehab, or trying to install Service Pack 2?
Welcome back Sputnick, I have missed your feedback.
irony and satire are alive and well!
Sputni…. ha ha, sputn, Bwah ha ha, he said… hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah No wait, did he really say 64 bit longhorn server? ROFLMAO, almost blew dr. pepper out my nose onto the iBook…. hahahahahahahahaha .WHAT running the iTMS?
Wow, welcome back Sputnik, it seems I was in serious need of some laugh therapy. Thanks!
On the other hand, you sound so much like our email admin that its scary. “It doesn’t matter if we cannot keep it up 75% of the time, we have always used, now use, and always will use Groupwise”
I think Sputnik has finally gotten tired of listening to all the crap from the wannabes like NoMacForYou/Ben/Lisa/etc
“Calif.-based IT consultancy, estimates that one tech support person can manage 50 to 75 Macs, whereas ideally, there should be one for every 20 to 25 Windows PCs.”
Hmm, what do they have monkeys driving mice over there?
I support 200 Macs on OS X, and 600 PC’s on XP. BY MYSELF.
That being said, 95% of my calls are Mac Related. Usually just a quark crash. But the truth is, If your running Server 03 and Active Directory, Windows Boxes are a hell of alot more manageable than the Macs. Its plain and simple. MS has buttloads more eXPerience in the corporate environments and more tools for administration. Furthermore, we havent had viruses in over 2 1/2 years (MSBlaster). So you can ALL say what you will, but you cant take those facts away, they are real.
Flame me if you want, But its the truth.
I support 200 Macs on OS X, and 600 PC’s on XP. BY MYSELF.
…and they’re all on the warehouse shelves in the boxes exactly where I left them.
Panicked Kernel:
I dare you to post your actual contact info so that anyone here — ANYONE — can verify that you are even remotely what you say you are. Just a link. Anything. I mean, being such a big shot IT guy with soooo much responsibility and geek knowledge, you surely can provide us with some form of verification to back up your claims . . . can’t you?
A home page? A protected site for the work you do??
Anything???
Hell, even reach out and contact the MacDailyNews admins directly and let THEM verify that you’re legit!
(Silence)
Yah, I won’t hold my breath. Besides, it’s clear that you and Sputnik are the same guy (or girl). Good luck in Wintel hell. Just go away and leave Mac users alone and please . . . just . . . give it a rest.
If I could, I would, Unfortunately it would put my job in jepardy if I were to disclose who I work for.(I’ve been there done that before) Thats just not an option. If you don’t trust what I say, thats fine, but you still cant take that away. Be weary of articles with this type of information, its always screwed one way or the other.
Just to make another point. Look at the article. It says “one tech support person can manage 50 to 75 Macs”. That number is seriously flawed. Ive seen one guy managing up to 400 Macs. So I would take these guys comments with a grain of salt. Things have changed since the initial release of XP.
Apple probably needs a $1,000 PowerMac (slotless G5 clocked at 1.8Ghz?). The mini may not be gutsy enough for an office, and iMac’s are expensive if you already have monitors/keyboards/mice.
You may say we should be careful of these articles KernelPanic, but the BIG difference between them and you is that they are out in the open stating what can be verified or shot down. They’re not likely to be lying unless they’re very dim which is probably least likely.
You on the other hand cloak yourself in anonymity….
Say no more.
Sputternick says: “The “real IT world” is built around the superior products and services that Windows offer …”
Yes, the “real IT world”, just about the most useless part of the computing world. They do serious stuff like spreadsheets, word processing, Email and databases. Ha Ha Ha! I think PC’s can cope with that sort of challenge … tee hee! Giggle!
I think I’ll stick to more interesting and challenging fields like serious numerically intensive programming, supercomputing, GRID projects, scientific visualisation, bioinformatics, Grand Challenge Projects and the like. These problems are easily solved using a real operating system such as one that is Unix based (Mac OS X, BSD, UNIX, Linux) or at least something like VMS!
Windows platforms may be OK to hook up for experimental data collection, but for powerful user/program/data interaction it doesn’t cut it … suffice to say that most calculations on Windows boxes likely happen inside spreadsheets … what a great problem solving environment! Great for tiddly problems but not much else!
MW is “across” as in that it is probably futile to get this across to a Windows-glued Luddite!
I find it very interesting that most of the discussion is focused on what IT departments want/need/use.
When did the corporate world decide that the ‘revenue sinks’ would dictate company policy? I strongly believe that when company owners wise-up and realize that the profit centers of the company should use the tools that they want and the ‘revenue sinks’ like IT must suck-it-up and learn their real place in the corporate world.
it would be refreshing if IT departments were not so fscking lazy. If i heard one IT guy, i’ve heard them all say it – you can’t (as in unpossible) use Macs one Windows networks, use Exchange, use Windows files, etc.
I had one guy ask me if you needed some kind of thing to do email translation (as in, Windows speaks email differently than Windows)
Most IT people are too lazy to give their users the tools that they want to get their job done most effectively. The IT geeks need to – but will never – learn is that they should be learning new things all the time, and that learning how Macs work would not cause them to spontaneously blow up.
I often tell the IT people at my work that I’m smarter than all of them. I’m a Windows administrator as well as a Mac sysadmin, as well as an OpenBSD sysadmin. If i can do all 3 of those things, and they can only do one, obviously, i’m smarter than they are, so they need to leave me alone when i want to use a Mac for my tasks.
Thorpedo
VMS is Windows Bro.
slashmac: “VMS is Windows Bro”
ROTFL! Actually not!
VMS predates Windows by a long time … a good decade if we count primitive software such as Windows 1.0.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMS and
http://www.win2000mag.com/Articles/Print.cfm?ArticleID=4494
While VMS did influence Windows NT (and onwards) obviously not enough to make it a robust and secure OS like VMS.
MW is normal as in it is not “normal” to like Windows!