In some ways, it seems like a lot; in other ways it seems like just a little. Usually, when you say that a company’s market share has more than tripled, you will find MBAs counting significant beans. But when the new, inproved market share is just over four percent, does that mean that it is small potatoes? The answer is probably somewhere in the middle.
The subject of all this numerology is the Apple Mac share of the corporate marketplace. It has indeed tripled, and then some, which is significant growth, Certainly, Apple is happy with the new numbers, although not ecstatic. And these are not the only available numbers, just those from Forrester. Last year, AMI Partners found that the market share in businesses with 100-999 employees was much larger: the Mac held 27% of the desktops and 18% of the laptops.
There is a reason for that: in large and very large companies, the IT department holds the desktop in an iron grip of conformity. In those businesses, Windows is the way to go because it means conformity with the least change. If you already have all Windows machines, any change to Mac is a big change and using all Windows is no change at all.
But the news today also included stories about companies like Google easing their grip in the business desktop, and allowing the user more freedom. If that sentiment and practice spreads, there is no end to the inroads that could be made by Apple, and that other contender, Linux. It would not take much freedom for users to spark a revolution on the business desktop.
Of course, a lot of this has little to do with Apple being successful. It is primarily a backlash against Windows Vista, arguably the worst operating system of all time. And as people jump off the Microsoft ship, Apple is a pretty comfortable place to land. Apple hardware is now PC hardware, pure and simple. It just the operating system that is different, and a lot of people are willing to take a flyer on OS X rather than jump into the pit of snakes known as Vista.
I'd say in the business world the iron grip on the desktop is so because windows is a more flexible operating system, More software and devices work on windows. As well as windows being a more secure and configurable operating system, not to mention the enterprise level application they offer.
Apple in the server room? I dont think so unless you've been smoking a lot of crack.
Apples inability to make back room computing platforms probably hurts them more than anything.
Posted by: mrsleep | April 2, 2008 12:56 PM | Permalink to Comment