In 2007 I took a trip to North America and during a business meeting with a successful IT infrastructure firm was told that their company was focusing heavily on Apple and that Apple was at approximately 8% (or thereabouts) of the personal computer market and growing rapidly in North America. It made sense to me given that this discussion occurred at a time when there was some pretty heavy marketing from Apple which we’ve all become accustomed to now. Why was this important to them and why is that information even more interesting today? At that time we (as in I Know IT)were trying to establish what impact this would have on our clients, which technologies we’d be adopting in the future and for me personally, what direction my organisation would take. The advantage we had and probably still do have is that we were far more agile than our North American friends and ready to adapt from what was previously a strictly PC focused IT support company. Apple has since broken 10% share in the US but in our local Australian market it has always been somewhat less given that Apple up until very recently hadn’t really made a big enough push here.
Nonetheless, with Apple growing so rapidly and remembering that since 2007 we’ve seen 3 iPhone generations, 2 ipads, super lightweight Macbook Air’s and the deluxe architecture of the Apple Stores in most major cities, why then haven’t we truly seen Apple take over or make a major dent in the business market?
The PC legacy
I’ll start with the obvious. It almost goes without saying but it’s important to point out. The PC has a legacy in organisations that runs very deep. It has entrenched itself in the soft skills of staff, the technical skills of systems admins and most importantly the software applications which we use on a day to day basis, many of whom don’t offer a Mac substitute. While that may be changing and somewhat rapidly with cloud computing and web based technologies, this is only a piece of the puzzle.
Mac Vs Microsoft or Mac Vs PC?
Let’s dig deeper. I feel one of the core reasons the famous ‘i’m a Mac, I’m a PC’ campaign has worked so well is that there really wasn’t a competitor in the desktop computing space until then. One thing Apple didn’t come out directly and say was a ‘i’m a Mac, I’m Not a Microsoft-Windows-Based Desktop’ although it was well implied. Why is this an important differentiation? Unlike Microsoft or Google, Apple are a hardware and media company, and they’re a darn good one. Why? They take the stuff that is horrible looking, boring and clunky and they sexify it. Before Mac’s began being adopted steadily in the past 4-5 years where did you always see Mac’s? Ill tell you – it was predominantly the creative space. Until very recently Apple owed an enormous chunk of their market share to this space. They own that space and rightfully so, they’ve made a product that meets the need of their consumer. But is this being reflected across other industry types now that Apple has cut into Microsoft’s monopoly? My observation is no. So far as our own client adoption rate of Mac computers (including ipads but not Including iPhones) I’d say we’ve seen a maximum of 3-4% adoption. This of course totally excludes those who already were Mac users in the first place, many of which are in the creative space. We have an open door policy on technology, so long as it won’t break your network then we take a ”you want it we’ll install it” approach.
If that’s the case and if I Know IT is a good reflection of market trends, then Apple, whilst being an incredibly successful consumer brand have barely made a dent in the business IT world yet.
Practicality..
I think the problem runs deeper for Apple (assuming they see this as a problem). In a traditional IT support model a computer has a physical problem and by and large most companies call on their respective IT guy to come and fix it – this is the way IT problems have traditionally been dealt with in the PC world for some years. And, this is fine if said company is running a PC environment. Today’s Systems Admins are well trained and acclimated to dealing with PC related problems. Not so for Apple. You might find it staggering to know that to get your Mac fixed Apple request that all hardware related issues are dealt with at your nearest Apple store. Huh? (im ad-libbing the conversation between said company and said company’s IT support guy now) “You mean I need to box up this machine, load it into the boot of my car, drive it on down to my nearest Apple store, wait for a diagnosis and only then might I have a solution to my problem? huh?”. That’s right.
You can see the conundrum for most businesses let alone large organisations who might expect to have several hardware faults per year and without a doubt barely have time for a computer crash let alone a day trip to Apple. Some might be fortunate enough to be a bit of a whizz at fixing Mac hardware faults but by and large the business community might find a few gaps and a substantial cost in Apple’s support model.
Because of Apple’s brand, image and marketing model they probably want to drive people through the Apple Store. A great way to do that is to get you in with a fault and upsell you a new device. I’m not saying it’s commercially wrong I’m just saying its’ severely limiting to enterprise customers.
To keep it interesting for the business consumer Apple have a strict partner program. Say your IT guy wants to not only offer you a PC but offer you a Mac alternative just so you have options. Unfortunately most can’t. Apple’s partner/retail program insists that resellers operate a completely Apple branded store complete with service personnel capable of handling retail device issues such as “why won’t my iPod shuffle anymore?”. The reseller or partner then must choose a location no less than several km’s from another similar Apple Store. Many (if not most) commercially focused IT support providers or managed services providers won’t fit the bill, and with those guys looking after the business side of IT - well for just about every company both here and overseas I think this seriously limits Apple’s integration into the corporate world.
To me, it’s this last point that demonstrates that Apple isn’t really in it for the business market. They have raving fans, evangelistic customers, amazing marketing and ground breaking products but they don’t have an army of integrators or a partner program that truly embraces the IT community, the same IT community who could be recommending, selling, integrating and supporting their products in the decades ahead. If they want to break out of the creative and retail space they need to start here before Microsoft pushes back and Google – who by all accounts is possibly a bigger threat – take back their slice of the corporate pie.
