14 DAY TRIAL // According to a Computerworld report, more than 700 surveyed senior IT administrators and C-level executives revealed that Macs are clearly a better choice for their business. Some of the reasons include the ability to virtualize other operating systems and reliability.
"Then, we were talking about onesies and twosies," said Laura DiDio, researcher at Yankee Group Research Inc, pointing out to an older, similar survey conducted over two years ago by the firm. "Now the number of actual users is very significant. A number of the businesses said that they had 50 or 100 or even several thousand Macs deployed."
Surprised by the figures? Don't be. Just this month, several reports pointed out that as many as 3,889 iMacs were heading to the newly built Fontainebleau resort in Las Vegas. The $2.9 billion resort, set to open its doors in Las Vegas next fall, will sport, among other "small" stuff, an iMac in each and every room.
Back to the Yankee Group Research survey, Laura DiDio noted that in early 2006, when corporate IT professionals were last polled on Mac deployment, some 47% of them claimed they had Apple Inc. hardware in their working environments. Since then, the adoption of Apple computers has grown significantly, the report reveals: "This isn't a tidal wave, but it's certainly a sustained trend," she said. "Apple has a beachhead in business. Where it once had just 1-to-2% market share in corporate, now they're up to 8-to-10%."
More than 50 Macs have been deployed in twenty-one percent of the firms surveyed, DiDo stressed out, noting that "This isn't Mickey Mouse; it's not just onesies and twosies anymore. Apple's graduated into the big league."
The reasons? Well, for starters, the ability to virtualize other operating systems, such as Microsoft's Windows: "That's clearly spurring some businesses," DiDio said. "A number of the respondents said, 'Oh, guess what, we're using the Mac to load Vista or XP on there and using Mac hardware," the report goes on. Another reason is Apple's ability to impose a trend among companies relying heavily on computers: "There's no doubt that user confidence in the reliability of both the Macintosh hardware and software products is having a tangible impact on corporate purchasing and deployment trends," DiDio wrote.
According to Computerworld, DiDio's report based on the survey will soon be released to the public.