Once considered consumer devices, Macs continue to spread in the enterprise due to employee demand and support costs, according to a Tech Pro Research report.
On a recent Apple earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said that the company “had great results in enterprise and education, with double-digit growth in worldwide customer purchases of iPad and Mac in both markets.”
Apple senior vice president and CFO Luca Maestri also noted on the call, “we are also seeing great traction for Mac in the enterprise market with all-time record customer purchases in fiscal year 2017.”
SEE: Facing the Challenges of BYOD in the Enterprise (Tech Pro Research)
Many factors determine the OS choice among businesses, said Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “One big influencing factor of OS choice is existing infrastructure of the businesses,” Kitagawa said. “If the business has built Mac OS based infrastructure and lots applications running, then they go with Mac OS because switching from Mac to Windows is too costly. There is same logic for switching from Windows to Mac.”
Another major factor for multi-national companies is if the business can get global support for the device, Kitagawa said. “Windows based PCs are better on the multi-national support compared to Mac,” she added.
The no. 1 reason for growth in enterprise Mac adoption is user preference, according to JAMF research.
“The users within a company have never had a louder voice than they have right now,” said JAMF CEO Dean Hager. “More and more IT shops are starting to treat their users like customers. I think companies are realizing is that the number one way they interact with employees is through the tech the employees carry–you want it to be as great an experience as possible. To do that, give employees choice in the matter.”
Upfront fees on a Mac may be more substantial than a Windows machine, but the total costs of ownership are often less because they are easier to support, Hager said. Macs also hold their value for a greater number of years than comparable Windows devices, he added.
SEE: 10 great Mac tips to make you more productive
Here are six of the largest publicly disclosed Mac enterprise deployments that have been confirmed by TechRepublic:
1. IBM
In just over a year, IBM passed its original goal of deploying 50,000 Macs, and is now at over 100,000 Macs and continuing to grow.
2. GE
GE announced in October that it would promote Macs as the desktop computer of choice for its global workforce of 330,000 employees. At this point, thousands of Macs have been deployed.
3. Concentrix
Business services company Concentrix has deployed more than 18,000 Macs to employees.
4. Oath
Oath, the collection of media and technology brands owned by Verizon, has deployed more than 15,000 Macs.
5. SAP
Multinational enterprise software corporation SAP has deployed more than 14,000 Macs to employees.
6. Capital One
Banking company Capital One has deployed more than 12,000 Macs.
