Apple on a slide? Not per this collegiate data
Nick Carr points to university data that suggests good reasons to host e-mail, but the data from the IT department at Amherst College is much more telling about a clear and present danger to Microsoft's enterprise dominance: students prefer Apple, and particularly for an area of traditional weakness for Microsoft, mobile devices.
Even as analysts suggest that Apple is in for a slowdown, the company's progress with today's students and tomorrow's employees is outstanding, suggesting that now may be time to stick with Apple, not dump the crop:
- Students in the class of 2012 who registered computers, iPhones, game consoles, etc. on the campus network by the end of the day on August 24, the day they moved into their dorm rooms: 370 students registered 443 devices.
- Number of students in the class of 2012 who brought desktop computers to campus: 14.
- Number that brought iPhones/iPod Touches: 93.
- Likelihood that a student with an iPhone/iPod Touch is in the class of 2012: approximately 1 in 2.
- Total number of students on campus this year that have landline phone service: 5.
- Mac or PC? Of the four classes currently on campus, the classes of 2009 and 2010 are more likely to own Windows, while the classes of 2011 and 2012 are more likely to own Macs.
Granted, students are mobile by definition. They change their rooms, they attend different classes, and so on.
But so is today's enterprise, and Apple has a strong and growing share of the laptop market, which is where profits and opportunity abound.
I don't know about you, but most of my life is spent on my laptop, filling in the gaps on my iPhone (and previously BlackBerry). The only desktop I've considered in the past five years is one to place in my family room so that I can more easily monitor my children's use of the Web. In that case, I don't want mobility, but that's the exception to the rule.
And the mobility that I and a rising number of others are choosing? Apple. I wouldn't be banking on a long-term Apple slide right now.
Matt Asay is general manager of the Americas and vice president of business development at Alfresco, and has nearly a decade of operational experience with commercial open source and regularly speaks and publishes on open-source business strategy. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
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Are you actually serious here? Please tel me you're not.
Oh, I don't know, how about this:
<a href="http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/01/apple_market_share_boost/">NPD: Apple took 20% market share of U.S. retail notebook sales in July and August</a>
<a href="http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=8&qpmr=100&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=116">Net Applications: Apple?s Mac OS share hit new all-time high of 8.23% in September 2008</a>
Not so long ago, Windows market share was 95%. It has now dropped to 90%.
IE market share was also close to 95%, now it is 72%.
Microsoft is being threatened by Apple from above, Linux (cheap lap tops) from below, and Google (web hosted applications and Chrome) from all sides.
If you're really interested in statistics then you'd note that Apple's OS share on Hitlinks has been largely static for May to August and has had it's usual 'back to school' peak in September. You'd also note that Apple's US market share has increased by about 4% in two years and its global share by about 1.5% over the same period. This against a massive advertising campaign and MS making a complete hash of launching Vista. So, yeah, Mac is growing but the rate of growth is slowing and it's never going to be mass market.
As for Linux. Seriously, who cares?
Apple's having it's day in the sun, will probably capture about 15-20% of the US domestic market and then get back to being what it does best - being a niche player of little interest to businesses and the majority of computer users.
Which is not to say that MS aren't losign soem market share because they are and, frankly, they deserve too. However suggesting it's the likes of Apple and Linux that'll take their place is, frankly, laughable.
And finally, Apple have historically done well in student sales but since that's a small market it's fairly meaningless. The majority of them will switch to PCs for work anyway as, again, has always historically happened.
Is Apple ready for the Enterprise? Hell no. Mac server is nowhere near the Windows Server platform in robustness, breadth of offering, management, etc.
I think it will be a bigger problem for the OEMs, because they'll be using Mac hardware, but every single one of them will have to run Windows on their Macs because the Mac enterprise structure is not there and Apple will never seriously develop it.
That's right. Enterprise is not their target. It can't be. Why? Because enterprises want flexibility in hardware, software, openness and high manageability.
So bottom line, Apple's going to keep making inroads in colleges most likely, homes, and probably grow their market share some more. But when those Mac users hit the Windows glass ceiling of enterprise, their companies are going to make them stick with Windows and they're not going to have a choice.
(By the way I m using an old Dell laptop running Puppy Linux because XP could not cope with 128M of RAM, so I am NOT a Mac fanboy. I am a consultant and work with multi platforms)
Granted, Mac Servers are not very far in the enterprise, but it's really a question of prejudice and inertia than a technical choice.
I manage both platforms, and although I must admit I am more used to Windows AD, I never cease to marvel at the Apple server solutions, both hardware and software.
1. Leopard Server can act as a perfect NT domain controller or AD server. It's completely transparent to Windows desktops
2. Leopard server tools are amazingly simple: 2 applications, instead of Window's many (granted you can get them together in MMC but it's still not that homogeneous).
3. Email is much more simple to manage on Leopard Server than Exchange. It may take a small learning curve, but once you master it, you can master it for ANY other Unix/Linux/Windows MTA
4. All the applications are harmoniously integrated, from Mail to Wiki to SQL server, from Directory Server, to Print and File sharing to desktop control.
5. You get applications that are not really functional (or properly functional) on Windows servers, for Video, Voice, networking, etc.
6. Server redundancy is amazingly simple. Backup is a breeze.
7. As you upgrade your Windows desktops to Macs (ROI and reduction of recurrent costs), your control over the desktop is far more granular than anything I've seen on out of the box Windows server
8. EVERY Mac desktop has built-in netboot, allowing it to boot a complete system over the network (in case of crash for instance) nearly automatically.
Don't get me wrong. I like Microsoft SBS (I think separate Windows + Exchange + SQL Server + Sharepoint portal + ISA + user licenses, is a total rip-off from Microsoft). I think it's a good product, and I recommend it often.
However, when prejudiced techies give disparaging comments or opinions about things they know nothing (or not much) about - first hand - it doesn't help our profession.
Grow up, people.
So you're seriously telling me that Apple is going to make significant inroads into the enterprise? It'll never happen. The simple fact of the matter is it comes down to two major points:
1. Cost of hardware: NO enterprise is going to go Mac so they can spend a significant premium for hundreds of units when the equivalent hardware is out there at a steep price difference.
2. Availability of software, flexibility and programming environment: You can't seriously say that MacOS stands up to the Windows platform for developability, number of ISVs and sheer volume of enterprise-class software available?
The bottom line is MacOS is by design a closed hardware and software environment. They will NEVER make significant inroads into enterprise for that reason. End of story.
That being said, I still stand by my previous statement. Mac will continue to garner some market share at home, probably education (for awhile at least), but will most likely never make significant gains overall because they're just not going to change their model to allow for the flexibility and openness that medium-large business and enterprise require.
If you can't see that, you're a hopeless fanboy.
That being said, as soon as I can frankenstein MacOS onto my (much lower priced than the almost exact equivalent MacBook, by the way) Santa Rosa whitebook, I want to play. MacOS is definitely neat, but until I can build my own machine that will run it legally and run my day-to-day apps on it, it has a zero-chance of me seriously considering switching.
And when money is tight...Apple loses big time ! Sorry Stevie :)
Consider this:
The *biggest* claim in your article is that "classes of 2009 and 2010 are more likely to own Windows, while the classes of 2011 and 2012 are more likely to own Macs". Yet you *didn't give us the numbers* for these classes! How lame is that? I'm 100% certain it's because the numbers weren't as impressive as the statement itself.
Now here's the kicker -- I could be wrong about the numbers. But my certainty is a result of *your* reputation! You just seem to cling at straws for anything that's negative for Microsoft. Your blog is titled "The Open Road" -- and yet you're so desperate to paint anything MS in a bad light, you'll even do it at the expense of lauding Apple -- who are the absolute epitome of the closed approach.
Have some shame dude..
And the Iphone craze is just that, a craze which will inevitably die down seeing as how they don't have any more room for growth. They stole the full touch screen phone from the LG Prada and made it their own and that has been what has made them unique. However, there was literally no difference between the iPhone and the iPhone 3G simply because after you go all touch screen there's really nothing more you can do. They are going to get oversaturated in that market when every Apple fanboy has an iPhone and then they'll have to create a new product, which would be, what go back to a keyboard? Unless the iPhone is going to fly or have virtual keys in the next version or something I don't see it changing anyone's life soon. Let's see how many of these numbers change by next year, when Apple releases the same device and calls it the iPhone 4G.
WTH ??? ?appeasing? ?
I used to attend a Computer User Group at Notre Dame University. Their IT guy said they had 50% Macs at ND and had no difficulty supporting both platforms.
?All of them came in to the Helpdesk asking for the computer to be fixed when there was nothing wrong with it. Some of them did not know how to right click, which doesn't exist, force quit a program like the Ctrl+Alt+Del method, even registering their MAC addresses or getting to the settings screen was an issue for them.?
And you never, NEVER got Windows users asking advice on registering MAC addresses?
Ignorance. ?Sheer, Pig-Ignorance !?
Right-click on Macs is the same as on Windows: plug in a two-button mouse and click the right button.
When using the trackpad, hold down the ctrl key to right-click.
Force-Quit is Alt+Apple+Esc. Or right-click on the application's thumbnail in the Dock to bring up the options list.
As for registering MAC addresses, it's not something most Mac users will ever need to do, but a simple internet search will tell you how.
Go to About This Mac, (The Apple Menu) click More Info, and then click on Network/Locations and look under Airport to find ?Hardware MAC address? for the Wi-Fi card.