Macs at Tipping Point?

Photo / Supplied

Enterprise, enterprise. Apple never really seemed focussed on it, and the Apple fans didn't seem to care what others could do with their BlackBerrys and Microsoft Exchange servers and the like. In fact, 'enterprise' constantly pointed out that Apple wasn't for them.

Or perhaps more gallingly for them, that Apple wasn't trying to be, either.

But nowadays, Apple seems to be making inroads with the picky, conservative and IT-guy controlled enterprise marketplace, almost despite itself.

Why? CEOs insisting on using their Mac laptops despite company policy, workers showing up with iPhones and then the lure of the iPad, a smart tablet that can be made to do ... well, all sorts of things.

But behind the scenes, other things have actually changed, too. Apple once developed it's own networking protocols (AppleTalk) and this kept Macs in a silo that did not talk easily with PC-based networks. But now you'll find Macs talk pretty seamlessly with Windows-based servers, even without the IT guys getting involved, and no sign of AppleTalk.

In a classic example of what may be the 'tipping point', a research firm that once advised enterprises they need only support Windows now urges companies to embrace Macs. "Stand in the way" of Apple users," the firm says, "and you will eventually get run over."

This is what Forrester Research is now saying, having discovered something Mac users have known for decades: Mac users are more productive than other enterprise workers. Yet an estimated 41 per cent of businesses still block Mac computers from even the most basic of network services, such as email access, despite Apple playing nice.

"It's time to repeal prohibition and take decisive action," Forrester's David Johnson writes in a new report. "Mac users are your HEROes and you should enable them, not hinder them."

The HERO acronym stands for Highly Empowered and Resourceful Operatives, something Forrester applies to 17 per cent of IT workers. This enterprise employee class finds "innovative ways to be more productive and serve customers more effectively."

So maybe it's high time enterprise moves away from the HITS model (that's my own acronym: 'head in the sand'.)

Three years ago, Forrester was advising its business clients the opposite, saying "Macs pose too many problems for IT departments. The verdict for enterprise-class vendors is clear: Unless your market is a niche business group, Windows is the only desktop you need support."

Now Forrester is viewing employees who bring portable Macs to work as "power laptop users." According to the firm's newest Workforce Technology and Engagement Survey, "44 per cent of this group make more money, are more collaborative and carry an average of three devices wherever they go."

http://www.cultofmac.com/126445/enterprises-support-the-mac-or-get-run-over-analyst/

Previously, Forrester advised that Macs make problems for enterprises. Now the company has changed its tune and says Macs are used in offices by executives, sales reps "and other workaholics."

What I find incredible is people pay for this kind of advice. But maybe people 'in enterprise' figure the only good advice to be had is advice paid for: Forrester offers tips on how to ease Macs into the enterprise, but you have to buy the US$499 report to benefit from the firm's take on what's been obvious to so many Mac users for decades already.

And yes, part of that Apple allure is style, and I love it when high-end device users sniff about that, accusing us of being susceptible to style over content. Because Apple, at least, knows that if something's attractive, people like it. So your butt-ugly device might be more powerful, faster or whatever than it's equivalent Mac and hell, probably cheaper, but it doesn't actually matter to people with any taste. Just like many car owners don't care a fig for some kid's lowered, big-bore retuned used import.

Because let's face it, most smart phones out there are ugly.

And if they're not, it's because at first glance they look like iPhones.

In that vein, Englishman Jony (sic) Ives, the man responsible for Apple's sensational-looking devices over the last two decades, now has more power than ever to create what so many people love.

In Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography that just came out was the disclosure that Apple design chief Ive has nearly complete freedom to do as he sees fit, thanks to an organisational structure purposely set up by Jobs.

Steve Jobs called Jonathan Ive his "spiritual partner" at Apple. He told Isaacson that Ive had "more operation power" at Apple than anyone besides Jobs himself and that there's no one at the company who can tell Ive what to do.

That, said Jobs, is "the way I set it up." And now Jobs is not there.

Ive, Apple's Senior Vice President for Industrial Design, has been at Apple for nearly twenty years, the last fifteen of those as design chief. He has been responsible for essentially all the iconic product designs that have come out over that time.

When Jobs' reign as CEO came to an end earlier this year, Ive was one of seven senior vice presidents at Apple to report directly to Jobs.

Ive's team supposedly operate out of a secretive high-tech lab on Apple's campus where Ives is given ultimate flexibility in his work, earned by his team's creation of numerous iconic products ... and loads of design awards.

MacRumors writes "And while Ive's design work ultimately must mesh with the hardware requirements coming out of Apple's engineering groups under Bob Mansfield, it's clear from Jobs' comments that Ive is free to pursue his own design solutions for Apple products. That freedom ultimately helps to guard against a watering-down effect that could occur if his designs were subject to the approval of and revision by others in the company."

And Ives has the backing to do it. Apple has increased its research and development spending from US$1.8 to US$2.4 billion this year compared to last, according to an Apple filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. That's a 33 per cent increase.

- Mark Webster mac-nz.com