Four out of five business have Macs on their networks - survey

[AppleInsider]

The presence of Apple products in the enterprise is much more pervasive and complex than previously thought, according to new study, which reveals the Macs and the Mac OS X operating system are now gaining significant momentum among corporate users.

A survey of 750 global IT administrators and C-level executives by the Yankee Group found that nearly four out of five businesses -- or approximately 80% --have at least a few Macs and the Mac OS X operating system installed in their networks.

"Although the Apple Mac hardware and OS X operating systems still represent a small niche, adoption and acceptance of Mac hardware and operating system software are growing at a steady and sustained pace not seen since the late 1980s," the firm said.

Of those who responded to the survey, nearly one-quarter said their firm had a "significant" number of Macs installed in their network, in excess of 30 or 50 units.

The Yankee Group cited a number of factors that it believes are fueling the adoption of Macs in the corporate world, such as Apple's sophisticated Safari web browser, iChat, an enhanced version of the FileVault security that provides disk encryption to protect data stored on Macs in the event a machine is stolen.

Also weighing in Apple's favor is the Time Machine embedded backup solution that ships as part of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, as well as its tool chest of Anywhere Applications features, such as embedded virtualization capabilities and the Back to My Mac feature that makes it easy for remote users to use the internet to remotely access files on their home computer using MobileMe.

Though not the focus of Yankee Group's study, Apple's encroachment on the enterprise market has been aided in large part by its entry into smartphone arena, as outlined by a Piper Jaffray report earlier this year.

With multifunction handsets a staple of most corporate ecosystems, the ability to market the iPhone to business users is changing, ever so slowly, the company's perspective on selling to the Enterprise, according to analyst Gene Munster.

"While Apple will let consumer demand drive the product decisions it makes, the company recognizes that every consumer is likely PC user at work, and we expect the company to focus on improving its outreach to Enterprise users," he said.

Following its recent iPhone Software 2.0 announcements with Exchange support and other enterprise solutions, Apple announced that over a third of Fortune 500 companies had sought access to the company's ongoing iPhone Enterprise Beta program.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Of those who responded to the survey, nearly one-quarter said their firm had a "significant" number of Macs installed in their network, in excess of 30 or 50 units.

I'd like to know percentages and if any of these are employee-bought machines.

[artse]

Please look up the meaning of pervasive! I don't think I would call Macs an "unwelcome influence" on corporate networks. I think they are probably there for a pretty good reason and hardly "unwelcome".

[mstone]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

The Yankee Group cited a number of factors that it believes are fueling the adoption of Macs in the corporate world, such as Apple's sophisticated Safari web browser,

I would imagine that any corporation doing in-house advertising/marketing work is likely to have few Macs running Adobe CSx. It is the number one reason PC centric IT managers will concede to allow them. As far as security is concerned the Mac users are usually free to do and install anything they want without intervention of the corporate IT police unlike their PC using coworkers who's machine are so locked down they would be lucky if they could change the color of their desktop. IT guys don't usually want to have anything to do with maintaining Macs.

[BuffyzDead]

Yes, at our publicly traded company exceeding two billion in Sales, our marketing team has 4 iMacs and a Mac Pro.

Cool to see them in a building where we have 1000 plus windows machines, all on XP.
Our IT VP claims they will never use Vista.
And they also welcome more and more iPhones everyday.

[hypermark]

To me, this is the proverbial water dripping on a stone that ultimately leads to the frickin dam breaking. Apple now has two types of devices (Macs and iPhones) that are finding pockets within enterprises, each of which complements, integrates with and extends the other.

Initially, the inroads were spot consumers bringing their device of choice to work. Then, it was workgroups pre-disposed to all things Apple, like marketing and communications. Next, verticals like entertainment, media, pharma, technology and education, are starting to make larger IT supported buys.

To be clear, with such tiny percentages as a baseline, huge relative growth lies ahead before the law of big numbers starts to create inertia.

I have blogged about the WHY side of the equation in:

Holy Sh-t! Apple's Halo Effect
http://thenetworkgarden.com/weblog/2...hit-apple.html

Check it out if interested.

Cheers,

Mark

[BuzDots]

Hey WidnowsGuy.... are you out there? knock, knock... hello?



Damn, he musta got run over by that light at the end of the tunnel.

[guinness]

Damn, AI is slow...this news came out in June, or it's just the same Yankee Group stats, rewritten as something new:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/...ng_Macs_1.html

The thing is, if Apple had never switched to Intel, this penetration never would've happened.

More than a quarter of the firms surveyed -- 28 percent -- said that they are running Windows in a virtual machine on the Macs they have. Slightly fewer, 22 percent, confirmed that their Macs are set up to boot either Windows or Mac OS X using the latter's built-in dual-boot utility, Boot Camp.

[macslut]

This is good news. I've always looked forward to the day that I wouldn't ever have to worry about starting a new job and having someone say, "Welcome to the company, here's your PC".

[stokessd]

I'm a huge mac fan and use a PC at work in a technical field with 2000 employees in my division. I don't think having a mac on my desk at work would be an advantage for my day to day. The reason is that the software that I use is a mix of Office (including visio and project), outlook and some specialized engineering software only available of the PC.

Having a mac on my desk means that I'd be using office for the mac, which is still not truly cross-platform after all these years. So if I compose on the Mac, I'd still have to at least check my documents on a PC. Plus I use a ton of VB scrips in excel fr simple data analysis. That means no Mac for that.

Visio is not available on the mac, so I need a pc for that.

Real CAD (proE etc) isn't around for the MAC, so I'm on a PC for that too.

So a big piece of my day is either validating my work on a PC or in bootcamp/fusion/parallels doing work in windows.

So until business uses truly cross platform software or stops passing files around, mac's will always be second class citizens in a windows office.

As much as I love the mac, I don't need that sort of headache in my work day, I've got enough things going on.

Frankly, I'd rather do my papers in LaTeX than word.


Sheldon

[djames42]

Originally Posted by solipsism

I'd like to know percentages and if any of these are employee-bought machines.

Indeed. I often have people asking me how I got a Mac Mini on my desk... "I went to the Apple Store and bought it myself." It sucks to spend $850 on personal equipment for the office, but it sucks less than using the Dell they gave me (which has been reformatted with Linux).

Originally Posted by stokessd

Frankly, I'd rather do my papers in LaTeX than word.

LOL... Most of my college papers were formatted using troff and nroff

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by artse

Please look up the meaning of pervasive! I don't think I would call Macs an "unwelcome influence" on corporate networks. I think they are probably there for a pretty good reason and hardly "unwelcome".

As far as I can understand, "especially of an unwelcome influence" doesn't mean that it has to mean that it must be an unwelcome influence to be a valid use.

Originally Posted by solipsism

I'd like to know percentages and if any of these are employee-bought machines.

Yeah, 30 to 50 machines without knowing the total number makes it a worthless number. If we're talking major corporations, that might be enough for a small branch office.

[Techslacker]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

A survey of 750 global IT administrators and C-level executives by the Yankee Group found that nearly four out of five businesses -- or approximately 80% --have at least a few Macs and the Mac OS X operating system installed in their networks.

I feel like I'm reading something from a salesman now.

It states "nearly four out of five". The author goes on and leads the reader to believe it's approximately 80%. That could easily have been written as "at least three out of five" which in doing the math can be written as "more than 60%" which is a big difference from approximately 80%.

Nothing like playing with the numbers.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by Techslacker

I feel like I'm reading something from a salesman now.

It states "nearly four out of five". The author goes on and leads the reader to believe it's approximately 80%. That could easily have been written as "at least three out of five" which in doing the math can be written as "more than 60%" which is a big difference from approximately 80%.

Nothing like playing with the numbers.

That sort of thing that happened in the article reads like the writer was paid by the word. I think that would explain why so many AI articles that mention that Apple is based in Cupertino, California, even though it's most likely common knowledge to almost all AI readers and it's completely irrelevant to the story.

[DavidW]

Originally Posted by Techslacker

I feel like I'm reading something from a salesman now.

It states "nearly four out of five". The author goes on and leads the reader to believe it's approximately 80%. That could easily have been written as "at least three out of five" which in doing the math can be written as "more than 60%" which is a big difference from approximately 80%.

Nothing like playing with the numbers.

It also could have been 599 out of 750. In which case nearly 4 out of 5 or 80% would be accurate.

Your analogy only works if they only surveyed 20 or 30 companies. And each company accounted for 5, 4 or 3 percentage points. But when you survey 750 companies Each company only represents .133 percentage point. So it's actually possible to have 79.867%. Which is nearly 4 out of 5 or 80%. And no where near 3 out of 5 or 60%. No matter how you play with the numbers.

[McDave]

Originally Posted by mstone

IT guys don't usually want to have anything to do with maintaining Macs.

Mainly because they're not necessary. Most PC issues are user errors through poor design or IT-inflicted through poor configuration. Apple designs both of these culprits out.

Originally Posted by artse

Please look up the meaning of pervasive! I don't think I would call Macs an "unwelcome influence" on corporate networks. I think they are probably there for a pretty good reason and hardly "unwelcome".

Like most non core-business employees IT's first order of business is self-preservation. Given the former point I'd say OSX is definitely unwelcome especially as many of it's benefits fall outside of IT's comprehension namely improved business productivity.

McD

[Alonso Perez]

Originally Posted by mstone

IT guys don't usually want to have anything to do with maintaining Macs.

Exactly. And that is why my MacBook Pro has a neatly locked down Windows XP living in its VM Ware Fusion box, while the Mac side is free as a bird, even with a separate IP address, but not on a Windows domain.

As for how I got it, simple, the top guy at my office likes Macs and thus authorizes their purchase. IT does not support them but nobody cares. Then again, this is a shop with developers who can maintain their own machines (some guys run Linux, also unsupported). I'm not saying the model applies in any company, but there are a lot of developers and power users in the corporate world who are always looking for ways to run around dreadful IT "support" (read limitations, corporate spyware, etc.).

Interesting thing is that some of us are starting to look into Cocoa development, now that we have these machines, and the iPhone provides further incentive.

[Alonso Perez]

Originally Posted by guinness

The thing is, if Apple had never switched to Intel, this penetration never would've happened.

Absolutely. No way I could have asked for a Mac without putting a Windows VM in it.

[Alonso Perez]

Originally Posted by solipsism

I'd like to know percentages and if any of these are employee-bought machines.

Some are, but most of the ones I've seen are company machines. This has a good side, you can get Mac Pro or MacBook Pro machines. But if you crave a MacBook Air forget it. You are going to have to get that yourself. It's not considered a work machine. Perhaps in the fashion business it might be. I have no idea. But not in the regular world.

[Haggar]

How many of those Macs are properly supported by those organizations? How many of those Macs are running Boot Camp, Parallels or VMware and simply being used as Windows machines?

[guacamole7]

My company has ONE old mac that we use to test websites in Shafari. The Mac is on our network, but nobody ever uses it unless an issue is reported in Shafari.

[delreyjones]

Originally Posted by guacamole7

My company has ONE old mac that we use to test websites in Shafari. The Mac is on our network, but nobody ever uses it unless an issue is reported in Shafari.

Well, get on it guacamole and tell your manager to buy some more!

[uniqueness-template]

I found it interesting that this study was published by Laura DiDio, an outspoken critic of open source software (especially Linux) and mouthpiece for SCO (as well as a sensationalist reporter involved in the fabrication of the Amiyville Horror story).

I wonder if she knows that a big part of the success of Mac OS X is its use of open standards and open source software (and making them accessible to mere mortals)?

While I want to believe this report, I can't help but wonder what her motivation in reporting this is.

[Neil Anderson]

Originally Posted by mstone

[...] unlike their PC using coworkers who's machine are so locked down they would be lucky if they could change the color of their desktop.

You're right. The Windows PC users have DeepFreeze installed on their machines here.

[McDave]

Originally Posted by guacamole7

My company has ONE old mac that we use to test websites in Shafari. The Mac is on our network, but nobody ever uses it unless an issue is reported in Shafari.

'Shafari' - does Sean Connery own a Mac?

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Of those who responded to the survey, nearly one-quarter said their firm had a "significant" number of Macs installed in their network, in excess of 30 or 50 units.

Must be a lot of exceptional 'Shafari' testing going on. Probably more exceptions than last year but I suspect not as much as next.

McD

[McDave]

Originally Posted by Haggar

How many of those Macs are properly supported by those organizations? How many of those Macs are running Boot Camp, Parallels or VMware and simply being used as Windows machines?

Undoubtedly many are but only to run those legacy Windows Apps before they're replaced by browser-based ones.

McD

[MyopiaRocks]

Originally Posted by artse

Please look up the meaning of pervasive! I don't think I would call Macs an "unwelcome influence" on corporate networks. I think they are probably there for a pretty good reason and hardly "unwelcome".

From the English Police:
Pervasive means, "to become spread throughout all parts." It has no inherent negative/unwelcome connotation. Pervasive derives from the latin, "pervadere," which just means, "to pass through." It is not a cousin of "pervert."

The use of "pervasive" is 100% correct. For more info, please see, dictionary.com

[teckstud]

I'd like to know how many of these are financial institutions- I mean does anybody know of one that uses Number 08 instead of Excel?

[Lafe]

Originally Posted by Neil Anderson

You're right. The Windows PC users have DeepFreeze installed on their machines here.

This is actually a huge benefit to Apple's perception in the marketplace. So many of
us suffer on PCs all day at work -- PCs that are shackled and limited in so many ways
to "protect" us from the horrors of what could go wrong and infect the whole network . . .

Then you think about how well your iPod works, even after three years or more. Then
you play with a friend's iPhone, and end up getting one yourself. Then a mac for
your desk at home. Then perhaps a MacBook . . . That's my story, anyway.

Meahwhile, that machine you use at work that's intentionally crippled by someone
to keep you "safe" bothers you more and more each day. You just KNOW you could
do your work in less time if you could use certain software, or configure such and such
differently. But those things aren't allowed. It grates on one's nerves constantly.

***

Regarding this article (which really does read more like an advert), I have to think
that most of these "4 out of 5" companies are like mine. We're huge, and could
afford as many macs as we like, but the handful we have are in a small room
somewhere, probably not even on the network, and they are only used for
video editing. And unlike some who have posted, we are not allowed to bring
in our own equipment.

There's a long way to go yet . . .

[vinea]

Originally Posted by stokessd

As much as I love the mac, I don't need that sort of headache in my work day, I've got enough things going on.

Parallels isn't much of a headache...

[melgross]

Originally Posted by uniqueness-template

I found it interesting that this study was published by Laura DiDio, an outspoken critic of open source software (especially Linux) and mouthpiece for SCO (as well as a sensationalist reporter involved in the fabrication of the Amiyville Horror story).

I wonder if she knows that a big part of the success of Mac OS X is its use of open standards and open source software (and making them accessible to mere mortals)?

While I want to believe this report, I can't help but wonder what her motivation in reporting this is.

Most people are critics of open source software. How can you not be?

The development model is all screwed up. Users are not considered to be important, only the developers. There is nowhere to go to when problems arise, etc.

When a company like Apple takes this software, puts its own people onto it, and fixes many problems, then gives that back to the community, they get criticized for not doing it the way these self styled overlords want it.

When they then spend hundreds of millions adding their own work to the software that is proprietary, the complaints pile up even more. It's insane!

The truth is that if it weren't for corporate sponsorship, many of the major open software projects wouldn't even get off the ground.

[guinness]

Originally Posted by Haggar

How many of those Macs are properly supported by those organizations? How many of those Macs are running Boot Camp, Parallels or VMware and simply being used as Windows machines?

When I worked for my university's IT department last year, I helped out on the Macs (along with our senior Mac person), but primarily only the school of education and president's office used Macs.

In the school of education. they would buy Mac Pros and MBPs, with 4-5 GB of RAM to run reading/writing apps, and in the president's office, they used iMacs, with Parallels, as most everyone needed to run Access, and the president likes Macs. It's just that in those 2 applications, Macs are overkill, as education doesn't need 4 GB workstations, but they had a big federal grant, and if you need Access, you're running Windows anyway.

The only thing that was annoying, is when our marketing department decided to upgrade to Leopard as soon as the licenses came through, and then they were mad because some apps broke. The joys of working on the edge.

Mac use in other departments was sporadic, but there was some in just about every department. (PPC and Intel). The adaption rate seemed to be increasing, especially among students, but we really didn't support students, other than help connecting to the network.

The various IT directors used MBPs, as about half the servers are running RH, and it was handy to have a terminal and run Fusion on the same laptop. I primarily used Minis and iMacs, but we also had Vista, XP, and Ubuntu desktops as well.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by djames42

Indeed. I often have people asking me how I got a Mac Mini on my desk... "I went to the Apple Store and bought it myself." It sucks to spend $850 on personal equipment for the office, but it sucks less than using the Dell they gave me (which has been reformatted with Linux).



LOL... Most of my college papers were formatted using troff and nroff

True, but the sales of Mac-mini's aren't that large and I highly doubt people are dumping down the change for the iMac or the Mac Pro just to have one at the office.

I have friends at certain companies who are more than wealthy enough to get the Pro but are working through their employer to get one allocated. These are systems engineers, not graphics design artists.

[zinfella]

Originally Posted by Haggar

How many of those Macs are properly supported by those organizations? How many of those Macs are running Boot Camp, Parallels or VMware and simply being used as Windows machines?

One of my BILs was responsible for about 500 Macs in his department alone, before he retired from Motorola. That was in addition to his regular duties, the Macs didn't keep him anywhere near busy. Motorola had tons of Macs, at one time.

[DavidW]

Originally Posted by teckstud

I'd like to know how many of these are financial institutions- I mean does anybody know of one that uses Number 08 instead of Excel?

And why can't you run Excel on a Mac? Either the Mac Office version or in Windows (on an Intel Mac.)

[Haggar]

If IT departments tell employees that they can have Macs as long as they reformat the hard drive and run Windows only, would that be ok? IT gets to standardize on pure Windows, and employees get to have a computer with an Apple logo on it.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by Haggar

If IT departments tell employees that they can have Macs as long as they reformat the hard drive and run Windows only, would that be ok? IT gets to standardize on pure Windows, and employees get to have a computer with an Apple logo on it.

I don't get the direction you're trying to go here. You mean in terms of the survey or as something to actually use? Having the machine just to get the logo is pretty silly, I don't see how it would be an acceptable compromise, that's the worst of both worlds.

[DavidW]

Originally Posted by Haggar

How many of those Macs are properly supported by those organizations? How many of those Macs are running Boot Camp, Parallels or VMware and simply being used as Windows machines?

I'm willing to bet that many of the Macs are laptops that upper management wants to carry around. They (the Macs) may not be on the network 24/7. But are capable of logging on when connected. Either in OSX or when booted with Windows.


The way I see it. An IT department has two choices when the boss wants a MacPro laptop. Either they get him the MacPro laptop and configure it to work on "his" network. Or draw straws to determine who's the unlucky stiff that has to explain to the boss why he can't have a MacPto laptop.


It is not accurate to say that 90% of all businesses uses PCs'. It's more accurate to say that 90% of all business computers are PCs'. And the vast majority of these business PCs' are $300 dummy networked computers that sits on someone desk 24/7. That gets replaced every 3 years when it's time to re-new the network service contract. There's no way that Apple will ever replace these PCs' with a $1200 iMacs'. However, it's being to make sense for businesses to replace the more expensive dedicated work stations and laptops with Macs'.

[zinfella]

Originally Posted by DavidW

I'm willing to bet that many of the Macs are laptops that upper management wants to carry around. They (the Macs) may not be on the network 24/7. But are capable of logging on when connected. Either in OSX or when booted with Windows.


The way I see it. An IT department has two choices when the boss wants a MacPro laptop. Either they get him the MacPro laptop and configure it to work on "his" network. Or draw straws to determine who's the unlucky stiff that has to explain to the boss why he can't have a MacPto laptop.


It is not accurate to say that 90% of all businesses uses PCs'. It's more accurate to say that 90% of all business computers are PCs'. And the vast majority of these business PCs' are $300 dummy networked computers that sits on someone desk 24/7. That gets replaced every 3 years when it's time to re-new the network service contract. There's no way that Apple will ever replace these PCs' with a $1200 iMacs'. However, it's being to make sense for businesses to replace the more expensive dedicated work stations and laptops with Macs'.

The voice of experience, or maybe not.......................

[a_greer]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

The presence of Apple products in the enterprise is much more pervasive and complex than previously thought, according to new study, which reveals the Macs and the Mac OS X operating system are now gaining significant momentum among corporate users.

A survey of 750 global IT administrators and C-level executives by the Yankee Group found that nearly four out of five businesses -- or approximately 80% --have at least a few Macs and the Mac OS X operating system installed in their networks. ][/url][/c]

In related news, most families report having red head step children