“Now that Apple Computer has started using Intel chips, is it time for businesses to replace their Windows PCs with computers from the company that introduced personal computing to the world? Probably not,” Thomas Claburn and Darrell Dunn report for InformationWeek.
“By using standard Intel chips in its computers, Apple is assured of an abundant supply of state-of-the-art silicon at commodity prices. It also means that its Macintosh computers can keep pace with Windows machines as Intel keeps improving processor performance. And by rolling out Intel-based computers last week, six months ahead of schedule, Apple avoids a slowdown in sales, as customers won’t be waiting around for the new models,” Claburn and Dunn report. “For Apple users, the news is all good: The new computers using Intel’s Core Duo dual-core chips offer two to five times the performance of previous Apple computers. And Apple is selling the PCs for the same price as its older, slower computers.”
“But for companies that mainly use Windows computers, the faster Intel-based Macs don’t provide many reasons to make a quick switch to new hardware and a new operating system. The reasons most businesses don’t use Macs–insufficient software availability, compatibility, and interoperability–won’t disappear simply because Apple switched processors. David Frederickson, program director for defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp., has long used Apple computers at home. But the company’s move to Intel processors probably won’t change the computer systems Northrop buys, mostly because government contracts generally require the use of Windows. ‘The current version of the Mac OS is far superior to the Windows OS as far as the user interface and the security you can set up,’ he says. ‘But the type of chip in the system isn’t the deciding factor. It’s basically the operating system and functionality they wrap around it.’ That means Apple is unlikely to increase its share of the business market any time soon. But the “halo effect” of the spectacularly popular iPod and Apple’s easy-to-use digital-lifestyle computer software, along with the move to Intel chips, may help the company grab more of the consumer market,” Claburn and Dunn report.
“Apple is starting to gain some ground. It sold 1.25 million Macs during the last three months of 2005, up from 1.05 million a year earlier. That increase helped fuel record quarterly revenue of $5.7 billion, though most of the growth came from sales of 14 million iPods, up 10 million units from the same period a year ago,” Claburn and Dunn report.
“Eric Seiden, a VP at wholesale distributor and importer Interstate Screw Corp., which has five Macs and two Windows computers. ‘It’s not necessarily a pro-Mac thing, but it’s an anti-Microsoft and -Windows thing,’ he says. ‘Windows is prone to viruses and security flaws. My whole goal is I want the computer to work for me, and I don’t want to spend my whole life fixing the damn things.’ [But], as long as crucial business apps from vendors such as Oracle and SAP aren’t available on the Mac, Apple’s computers–regardless of which chip is inside–won’t be a serious option for many businesses,” Claburn and Dunn report.
Full article, with interesting survey results about why some businesses use and for what purposes, here.
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No one is suggesting that all business just chuck all their systems out the window (pun intended) and replace them with Macs. They don’t even do that with their existing PC’s when upgrading them, usually it’s a slow process anyway.
What it does suggest is that small businesses are more likely to embrace the new technology and big companies could consider using some Macs in certain environments as part of a more secure multi-OS environment. Once people get accustomed to them, and learn the benefits, and remove the myths and objections, then we can start to talk about longer term large scale migrations.
This takes time. Give it a few years. Apple’s on the right track with this.
OK, it’s worth a re-hash here. Only time will tell, but Information week may be in for a surprise.
From the early days, when a PC with the name “IBM” on it became available, I.T. buyers have played it safe. In the 80’s, they didn’t have to drag out their crystal balls to predict whether or not their computer would be supported two or three years in the future. Based only on the buzz in both geek and business circles as a result of IBM’s entry, they could project with some confidence that today’s decision wouldn’t cause them to loose their jobs three years down the road.
It’s the same situation today. I.T. guys (and gals) have to look out for “Number 1” (as in: feed their family and keep a roof over their childrens’ heads). Most know the Mac is better and more stable but few are willing to put their necks on the line by using their employer’s capital budget to make a wholesale change in a computing standard just because it’s a “superior user experience” (pronounced with a lisp). No one looses their job because a Windows computer has to be re-booted twice a day.
It’s an uncommon business that permits its employees to make bold, risky moves without fear of job-jeopardizing reproductions if things go south. Examples of such businesses are those with bosses that REALLY know what makes people tick, and highly technical or scientific organizations that aren’t intimidated by technically arcane details. So why in the world would one expect I.T. people at your common, semi-idiotic American business to do anything but take the safe bet, no matter how mediocre it is?
More problematic for Apple is the widespread use in American business of vertical market niche applications for such things as material resource planning (MRP software). These applications are incredibly complex, rarely available cross-platform, and companies are completely dependent on them. Consequently, they can only put Macs in “art departments” because employees there don’t give a holy crap if they have an installed seat of their company’s MRP program or not.
Apple’s move to Intel chips provides a huge, HUGE opportunity if properly exploited. For one, not only can Macs run Microsoft Office (they always could), but they can now run these companies’ vertical market, niche applications such as their MRP software. The question is: How easy will it be to simultaneously run both Office and their MRP on the new Intel-based Macs? Will you have to “cube-over” to your MRP (?) or will it just shrink over to the dock? Is Apple going to provide an in-house solution or rely on some purposely crippled Microsoft solution? If Apple does this right and squashes most of the bugs, an I.T. manager could place Macs as both servers AND clients all over their company’s desktops. The advantage for them would be immediate: their users’ computers don’t crash every day and they would be at much reduced risk of a virus bringing their system down. The I.T. guy looks good. And still, the I.T. guy could have the confidence that if things go south, he could erase all their OS X software and install barbarian software that would still run on all their Apple-made Intel boxes.
All Apple needs to do is show I.T. managers three things: 1) how easy it is to integrate Macs over a multi-month period without pissing off employees and their managers during the transition, 2) how, even when Windows is simultaneously running on the Mac, OS X is as crash-free as it currently is, and 3) that there is a viable (low cost) plan to revert back to square-one if everything goes to hell in a hand basket.
Apple is running its company on the Mac platform, and they don’t seem to be doing to badly. Smart businesses consider ALL their options.
One of those interviewed said that when served and maintained and controlled tightly, PCs run without problems.
Maybe that is one part of the reluctance? What would those people do if they switched to Macs?
I concur- The latest version of SAP (the number#1 ERP app) runs native on Mac OSX.
So this guy doesn’t really know what he’s talking about.
How this reminds me of a wonderful poem by Sam Walter Foss, “The Calf Path.”
Yeah. Interesting observation from meatofmoose. Business today is following 30-year-old calf path.
Wingsy,
Nice job cherry picking – the average for the iMac G5 is 64 or so, which is not far off from the iMac Intels you chose. There was a grand total of TWO Intel iMacs compared to 2200 iMac G5s. And the iMac G5 results ranged all the way down to 37.
Why not give somebody a chance to optimize their system and submit results before crying “Wolf”?
FOR GOD’S SAKE. IT’S “LOSES” WHEN SOMETHING IS LOST, NOT “LOOSES” (NO SUCH WORD). LOOSE BECOMES LOOSEN, AS IN “IF ONE MORE PERSON MIS-USES THESE WORDS, I WILL LOSE IT. LOOSEN MY TIE, AND LOSE MY LUNCH.” HOOKED ON PHONICS APPARENTLY LEFT OUT THE EXCEPTIONS TO THE DOUBLE VOWEL RULE.
“”
‘The current version of the Mac OS is far superior to the Windows OS as far as the user interface and the security you can set up,’ he says. ‘But the type of chip in the system isn’t the deciding factor. It’s basically the operating system and functionality they wrap around it.’ That means Apple is unlikely to increase its share of the business market any time soon.
“”
Reworded: Mac OS is superior to Windows OS, but it isn’t hardware that’s important, it’s the OS. Therefore it doesn’t matter which OS is superior.
Huh?
A general complaint for most essential software arguements:
There is no such thing as mission critical software, only mission critical data. You should never restrict your mission critical data to a single solution (platform or application) because then you don’t own it – the application vendor does.
MW = “glass” an in “through the glass darkly”
Looses is a transitive verb.
Truth–
You Can Lead A Horse To Water But You Can’t Make Him Drink.
Any good salesman will tell you that it isn’t your job to make him drink. It’s your job to make him thirsty. Steve knows this.