14 DAY TRIAL // We, the Mac users, know very well how great Macs and OS X are, and will probably never willingly go back to using Windows. Apple knows how to attract the individual customer with an easy-to-use, intuitive, well designed product that works beautifully. But when it comes to enterprise clients, Macs are not yet an alternative.
Things might be starting to change for Apple and we might see Macs becoming a viable alternative to Windows or Linux systems. At the moment, Mac's share of the desktop market is small to say the least, around 4 percent. Things are unlikely to change very soon, according to John Fontana at Network World.
Ironically, this movement may be triggered by Vista. If there is a change to be made, let there be change! And Apple has a lot of advantages on its side. The first, perhaps the mightiest, is their Intel architecture and ability to run Windows.
Either Boot Camp or the virtualization product from Parallels can reliably enable Windows OS to run on a Mac machine. Leopard will bring a lot of major improvements as well, a new Leopard Server (iCal Server, wiki server), new Boot Camp, search improvements and better applications, which are not to be overlooked.
To gain corporate clients, Apple must develop a strategy. There is no formal support or technical assistance for enterprises, and the software market today is mostly Windows dedicated. There is a long way to go to get PCs out of offices and Macs in.
Perhaps Apple will engage on the right track and start thinking big, I'll surely love to see that. For now, this is just a dream of the new generation. The good news for Apple is that IT departments are starting to see Macs as a real alternative and perhaps will begin thinking quality over quantity and routine.