Opinion: How Apple has changed enterprise computing, forever
Led by the fast-emerging BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend, Apple [AAPL] is crunching into the enterprise market, creating a growing market share with the Trojan Horse of its mobile devices and a fast-growing interest in its Macs.
We need promises that deliver
With Windows 8 the latest Microsoft promise to woo the corporate markets, this is a time of decision. Many enterprise-class tech purchasers are looking at whether it's worth upgrading to the next MSFT OS on strength of the firm's mobile-meets-PC promise, or whether to take on any of the two main alternatives for this dream you see around today: Apple or Android.
Despite my reservations concerning Google's moral prerogative when it comes to the way it created Android (I'm an Apple Holic and do feel the feeling of betrayal between Apple and Google has some good reasons to run deep) it must be said that in conjunction with iOS and OS X, these two big firms have freed the enterprise world from the rubber-clad silvery handcuffs of the Microsoft-based hegemony. And the latter firm's CEO, Steve Ballmer, has been unable to crack the whip to preserve the firm's control of the corporate world.
Evidence-based dreaming
This isn't just a pipe dream. Think on this:
-- A UK YouGov survey recently claimed iPad usage in business has doubled in the last year.
-- An Aberdeen Group survey points out that 96 percent of businesses have at least one iPad in use.
-- SAP now has at least 3,300 corporate--owned iPhones and over 11,000 iPads -- a move which has reduced tech spend by a significant amount.
That's just Apple's ecosystem. Google still has work to do to deliver a truly credible alternative to Cupertino's lead -- there's over 500 samples of Android OS malware in the market, with Websense predicting this will rise to "thousands" this year. What does that mean?
It means that at this stage, faced with a choice between re-investment in Windows 8 and the subsequent investment in PC upgrade for machines capable of running that OS, or a move to the credible and secure Apple ecosystem, tech buyers face a truly credible choice for the first time in years. Read more...