Mac attack in the Enterprise!

I've been thinking a lot about the role of Macs in the Enterprise lately. In fact, I've been thinking about it since I made the switch to Apple about 4 years ago. At the time I was working with Microsoft, it was not a popular device when we were in their offices. I actually fastened a Dell logo to put over the Apple the first time I brought it over there. After the third or fourth, "that's the nicest Dell I've ever seen comment" I just couldn't take it anymore and let everyone in on the secret. I hoped they'd cut me some slack since I was still running Windows and Office (first with Parallels and later with VMware Fusion, you can also use Bootcamp which is included free but doesn't let you run both operating systems at once) and they did let me off easy although I never let it out of my site in hostile territory. They all ran IBM machines so I'm not sure how that's all that better.

Macs have long been the popular choice for creatives, firms that focus on things like graphics and videos, but are a small percentage of overall PC's in the Enterprise. This is changing and changing fast. For the past few years Apple has been growing by double and sometimes triple digits across major verticals, the fastest growth has been in the largest businesses. 2010 was a huge year for Macs as illustrated by an IDC report from the second quarter.

What's changing that's driving this "bring your Mac to work day" movement?

I think it's primarily being driven by the forces of Consumerization. Turns out a device that is awesome at home, is also awesome at the office. These are the same forces that have made the iPhone such a force in the Enterprise. Computing is a personal experience and every day people are becoming more confident and vocal about their options and preferences. Confidence is critical. The Marketing Director didn't need IT to tell her how to use her iPhone - she was going to use it with or without them. A person insecure about their knowledge does what they're told, "here's your Dell D6whatever and your BlackBerry". Once someone gets a taste of the other options and KNOWS what they prefer, the BlackBerry doesn't cut it anymore. Many people in modern knowledge-based economies spend more time on their computer than any other device. If we should get to make a personal choice about anything we work with on a daily basis, this should be one. Quality of the experience is huge. It's a phone, who cares? A computer is a computer. No, it's not a phone - it's a phone I spend more time with than my family. It's a computer I'm with almost every day and do everything on. Apple has had a laser focus on the quality of that experience - that 1 on 1 relationship - for the entirety of Steve Jobs tenure. Quality is directly connected to the level of effort required to make the relationship work. Specifically, quality and level of effort share an inverse relationship. This relationship is easiest to experience when we work on an outdated process, tool or device and inevitably say "I can't believe I used to do it this way". The exercise is more difficult when we're comparing two "modern" options. We perceive, often correctly, that the differences in quality vary mostly by personal preference. However, in some instances we confuse preference with familiarity. It's human nature. Regardless this quality of experience is discovered and becomes the preference to more and more people. These people are officially converts, they're not going back and they're passionate about the decision they've made because they never want "to do it that other way" ever again. Once they've found this quality of experience, they demand it everywhere.


Soon Apple will announce numbers for this holiday season. What will they say? Obviously I don't know specifics but I do know they'll say this: "Apple had its best quarter in company history. We sold tons of iPads, tons of iPhones, tons of Macs and tons of iPods." Consumerization is a tremendously powerful force that's really just getting started in the Enterprise, so too is Apple. Macs will see huge growth again across all verticals in 2011. Apple is currently the world's 2nd most valuable company, dependent on oil prices it could take the #1 spot - one more sign of our transition from the Industrial to Information Age.