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What I find most surprising is that so many companies allow their employees to choose their computers, given the (initial) costs for Macs are so much higher.
I work for IBM and yes the initial acquisition cost is higher on the Mac. However, in the two years of Mac use, they have proven to cost less than 50% per year of the Lenovos in annual support cost. So for us, we are money ahead after 18 months of ownership. Considering we keep them 3 years, its a good ROI. Your mileage may vary of course. And yes it was my choice to try a Mac and I am 90% satisfied. I find a few things I miss from Windows, but not that many.
 
I used to hate Lenovos but honestly, I am thinking of switching my personal MacBook Pro out for one. Specs are good, Windows has way more customization, and Windows 10 is actually very stable in my experience. Except for the forced updates. Those are the worst.

If our company was offering windows laptops on par with the MBP (XPS 15) I'd seriously consider the swap. Alas, the design software we use is Mac-only.
 
I used to hate Lenovos but honestly, I am thinking of switching my personal MacBook Pro out for one. Specs are good, Windows has way more customization, and Windows 10 is actually very stable in my experience. Except for the forced updates. Those are the worst.
I really like the XPS 13 and 15s I got as demo units recently, having the quad-core in the 13 inch was really nice for most workflows. I hope to dual boot linux and windows 10 on mine.
 
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I work for a large IT company which I won't name here. In the past they let managers (but not the average employee) choose between Macs and PCs, and guess what, most of them got Macs. Then another big IT company bought us, and that company happens to make PCs. Of course they stopped giving anyone the option for Macs, but some managers are still using their Macs, as I have recently seen in meetings. Additionally, from a quick conversation I had with the rest of my team (about a dozen people), about half use Macs at home.
 
Usually only mom and pop shops allow you to choose but large enterprises are predominately Windows and Linux in most major industries. Occasionally, software development or media departments might be more Mac focused.

Mom and pops and enterprise? Why ignore the gigantic segment of 25-500 users in the middle?
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I work for a large IT company which I won't name here. In the past they let managers (but not the average employee) choose between Macs and PCs, and guess what, most of them got Macs. Then another big IT company bought us, and that company happens to make PCs. Of course they stopped giving anyone the option for Macs, but some managers are still using their Macs, as I have recently seen in meetings. Additionally, from a quick conversation I had with the rest of my team (about a dozen people), about half use Macs at home.

I was in a similar situation where only managers and directors were allowed to get a company Mac. The funny thing is the company was a service provider with windows based engineers and consultants, but virtually all of them chose the Mac and would just borrow a windows loaner machine for presentations at client sites, but otherwise used Apple for everything else.
 
This survey must have been rendered on an alternate universe, with rose-colored glasses.

Most enterprises are windows-based thru and thru.

Blame it on Windows Active Directory, whose tentacles make centralized management of desktop akin to managing thin terminals.

With Active Directory, every desktop nuance is ultimately at the control of IT via Group Policy objects, or GPOs. All controls by IT take place during domain login with remote procedure calls extended and imposed by Active Directory policies.

It is so bad, that Macs running the better macOS, but running Windows as a VM, are denied support, or even access, by IT due to the lack of Active Directory integration. This because Windows VMs under macOS extend themselves onto the network via macOS kernel driver extensions, and effectively are blind to the tentacles of Active Directory, other than core Server Message Block protocols for file sharing and printing.

Obviously, IT and me do not see eye to eye.
 
If I had the choice, I would use a Mac (even better if I could use my 2017 15", like I used to do in a previous job w/my 2011)... we do use iPhones, new starters now get to choose 8/8+, but we're on ThinkPads for computers and while I don't mind it and am glad it's on Win10 at least - I would prefere to use Apple hardware if I could... maybe someday!
 
This is why people don't trust polls or surveys anymore. This is one of the most skewed and unrealistic surveys I have ever seen in my life. It absolutely does not represent the reality of what is out there. I work for a large software development consulting firm and we have hundreds of enterprise customers and 99% of them only care about Windows. There are skewed biased surveys and then there is what some of us see in reality by working in the trenches.

Don't get me wrong I own 5 Macs counting the MBP provided by my work and 7 iOS devices that I use for developing mobile apps. I love Apple but studies like this are absolutely pointless, unrealistic and just frankly dumb.
 
While there are people with MAC's here, it is not an option for myself or my next two levels up in management. I know because they tried. In fact, iPhone has recently been removed as an option and replaced with Android phones only. If it were a choice I know which way I would go.
 
It is so bad, that Macs running the better macOS, but running Windows as a VM, are denied support, or even access, by IT due to the lack of Active Directory integration. This because Windows VMs under macOS extend themselves onto the network via macOS kernel driver extensions, and effectively are blind to the tentacles of Active Directory, other than core Server Message Block protocols for file sharing and printing.
That's not true these days. My Mac and Windows VM (on said Mac) are both managed and work well with AD.
 
I just wanted to say, I would have believed this about 3 years ago before the touchbar, removal of mag safe and SD cards, butterfly keyboard, etc. Most people at my workplace are asking for Apple machines 2015 and earlier, especially after being issued one of the new ones. Everyone is sort of hoping Apple will come to their senses soon.

Today most engineers who are of the type to ask for something non-standard are looking to the Dell XPS 15 and Lenovo ThinkPad lines of laptops loaded with Linux. ThinkPads have the best typing experience while Dells are just more common and compatible. IMO the hipster type are leaning ThinkPad while the nerds are leaning XPS 13/15. Some of the execs are looking at the Surface Books, but I haven't seen a developer ask for one of those.

While the touchpad experience is still second to none on the Macs, the competition is just too fierce right now to remove key features that engineers love. That combined with the scary security fails really turns off the engineer crowd. We were willing to accept non-upgradable RAM and the removal of the network port, but now the MBP is just not a good choice. Everyone is sort of scrambling to figure out where to go.

Me personally, I've been using MacBook Pros since x86 OS X cause I'm a backend virtualized Linux developer and I like a nice GUI. However, I'm looking to the new Dell XPS 15 6 core running Kubuntu 18.04 or Qubes 4. Maybe the ThinkPad P52 with a Xeon. Until then my late 2014 MBP is a desirable commodity at work.
 
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Too bad Apple doesn't take enterprise seriously and loves stepping on enterprise admins when laying out new awkward security requirements in the High Sierra, e.g. secure tokens, without givings enterprise folks a real path to manage those.
 
For me, macOS provides the best combination of sleek hardware, hiDPI support, native keyboard shortcut support, and UNIX compliance for coding. That, and the OS generally feels much more like a uniform experience.

Besides, enterprise security seems to come down to weak passwords and phishing mails anyway.
 
Not sure who all these companies are or what they do, but most of my apps don't have a Mac client. The production apps from GE, OSISoft, DataParc solutions, Honeywell, Allen Bradley etc do not work on mac.
 
I would chose a PC over a Mac...if it was 1995.

Well. I prefer Linux over Windows AND macOS -- and I now work at a research institute where we support all three of them. Most people here still choose Windows, though. And macOS is given my team the most struggles to get the platform integrated into our environment and to get administration and software deployment centralized and automated.
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Not sure who all these companies are or what they do, but most of my apps don't have a Mac client. The production apps from GE, OSISoft, DataParc solutions, Honeywell, Allen Bradley etc do not work on mac.

This. The reality is that most software still requires Windows.
 
It's my observation people are no more productive in the enterprise with a Mac. In fact it's the opposite. I can't tell you how many times I've waited on a conference call while a Mac user has to restart their virtual machine so they can present. All too often I see people having to work around Mac limitations which exist because it's a PC world. They seem to be oblivious to the extra work they're having to do to work within a PC ecosystem.

IMO many choose a Mac based on fashion / form more than functionality.

That's not the fault of the user, os or the hardware.
I choose mac for the features and functionality as well as the security and consistency.
 
I really like the XPS 13 and 15s I got as demo units recently, having the quad-core in the 13 inch was really nice for most workflows. I hope to dual boot linux and windows 10 on mine.

I have an XPS 15, and it runs Xubuntu 18.04 very well. Go for it! :)
 
Coming from a company that sells Mac management software, I think the result is expected. The sample size is extremely small too.
Of course the sample size is small. Most large organization have IT dept stuck in the past and do not allow any choice. Hail, most of them are still using Win7. Very few IT Dept will give end users a choice.
The choice of an iPhone/iPad for mobile is the obvious choice for mobile IT. Android is too fragmented and support would be a PITA and old school IT Dept want support to be as simple as possible. As Mr. Scott said in STII, "The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."
 
This is why people don't trust polls or surveys anymore. This is one of the most skewed and unrealistic surveys I have ever seen in my life. It absolutely does not represent the reality of what is out there. I work for a large software development consulting firm and we have hundreds of enterprise customers and 99% of them only care about Windows. There are skewed biased surveys and then there is what some of us see in reality by working in the trenches.
The survey is of companies who allow their users to choose a device. Perhaps you are working with companies who don't allow their users to choose a device.

The very first line of the article reads, "Among enterprise organizations that allow employees to choose their equipment of choice".
 
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Of course the sample size is small. Most large organization have IT dept stuck in the past and do not allow any choice. Hail, most of them are still using Win7. Very few IT Dept will give end users a choice.
All of those reasons do not excuse the small sample size. I bet they sampled their customers and (not ironically), their report conclusion matches their selling points.

I would venture to guess the IT departments of which you speak do so for a reason, and not just because they don't want to change. I have known many IT personnel who would welcome the change but are unable to do so due to unavailable software or even human resource constraints. I have yet to see an IT department that doesn't support Android and iPhone.
 
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