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Before I begin, I’d like to make this disclaimer: I LOVE MY MACS!
That being said, there are some very good reasons why Apple has a long way to go before being considered a serious player in the enterprise market. I’ve worked for three Fortune 500 companies over the past 25 years as a software developer, sysadmin and IT manager. Over that span I’ve witnessed the move from mainframes to minis to the client/server environment that’s dominant today. While most CIOs and IT directors would love the usability and security of OS X, several things need to change before Macs are seriously considered for widespread enterprise use.
Apple doesn’t offer suitable enterprise desktop hardware. The same gaping hole in Apple’s product line-up that spawns companies like Psystar is the type of product most IT professionals look for when purchasing desktop hardware. They want a serviceable, small to medium sized computer with “middle of the road” specifications. The only user serviceable machine Apple makes is the Mac Pro. Its’ $2500 starting price is enough to buy three Dell or HP desktops with adequate specs. Before you fanboys start shaking your fist, I know the Mac Pro is a lot more machine, but IT managers don’t make those comparisons. They just want a new machine to fit their specification and they need the ability to replace parts themselves when necessary. That requirement eliminates the Mac Mini and iMac. While both can be taken apart when necessary, it requires a skill set not usually found at most businesses and (even if an IT department had the skills) the procedure to replace parts on either machine takes entirely too long. If Apple were truly serious about the enterprise market they would produce a desktop machine with a tool-less chassis and iMac-like specs.
OS X and Mac apps need more compliance with industry standards. Apple is taking a big step forward with their upcoming release of OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). MS Exchange support has been one of the tallest speedbumps in the road to enterprise acceptance of Macs. It remains to be seen just how well Apple’s Exchange integration performs, but assuming it works as advertised, a major show stopper for thousands of IT departments will disappear. I’m glad Apple finally gave in on this one. Another truth in the enterprise world: MS Office rules. Office 08 for Mac is 80% there in terms of compatibility, but until VBA is supported (Microsoft’s fault) untold millions of “home grown” business applications won’t run on a Mac. It is a bit disingenuous for Microsoft to claim cross platform compatibility.
No Mac versions of many software titles. There are a multitude of business-centric applications for which no Mac version exists or the Mac version is sorely lacking in features and functionality. Intuit’s Quick Books instantly comes to mind. This is a huge player in the small business market and one I have personal experience with. I migrated Quickbooks ’09 Pro from Windows to Mac about six months ago and I’m still finding missing features on the Mac version. These aren’t trivial differences either, there are key features for expense tracking that are completely missing from the Mac version as well as any useable form of payroll integration. Keeping my business books on a Mac is something I’m doing out of sheer stubbornness and probably would not be repeated by most small business owners. Many other common business systems (Older versions of SAP, Novell, etc) don’t directly support OS X and third-party solutions are spotty at best.
You can’t dock a MacBook Pro. The percentage of portable computers in business is growing rapidly. It’s been my experience it normally runs about 20%, but as laptops get cheaper and more powerful they are becoming more suitable for a bigger slice of the employee pie. In all my years as an IT manager I never once bought a laptop computer without a docking station. Users have come to expect them and IT departments don’t want the hassle of dealing with four or five different connections to each laptop being connected and disconnected every day. This isn’t a huge point of contention, but in a fictitious business world where Macs are dominant, portable computers will still be docked.
But the real reason for so few Macs in the enterprise:
APPLE COULDN'T CARE LESS! Even if OS X and Mac applications are suitable for a particular business, no self respecting IT manager would ever buy machines for wide distribution from Psystar and they probably wouldn’t buy a bunch of iMacs either, but for a very different set of reasons. Psystar’s stability is dubious and iMacs are too difficult to service (you either ship it to a service center or go to a Genius at the mall). I would love to replace every PC at my worksite with a Mac but unless Apple decides it really wants to compete in the enterprise market they will remain a small player. Last quarter results indicate Apple’s revenues are up and they own the $1000 + computer market. Dell and HP would both trade spots with Apple in a nanosecond if they could. Obviously, the better business model was crafted in Cupertino.