72% of Enterprise Employees Choose Macs Over PCs, 75% Pick iOS Devices Over Android

[namenotfound]

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.

Windows VM's are perfectly capable of accessing AD and having group policies applied. However, they are a pain in the butt to maintain. Users typically hibernate the VM, never rebooting it or logging off. I work in a 90% PC and 10% Mac environment, and the Mac's them

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.

Windows VM's are perfectly capable of accessing AD and having group policies applied. However, they are a pain in the butt to maintain. Users typically hibernate the VM, never rebooting it or logging off. Updates are therefore not applied and it's an EMULATION of a physical machine. So yes it runs slower. After years of complaining, we pulled the plug on VM's running under MacOS. You want a Mac, fine, but we aren't putting windows enterprise on it for you.

 

[york2600]

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.

The last 4 tech companies I've worked for have asked during the onboarding process. Just about everyone took a Mac. A few PCs with Windows and a few PCs with Linux.

 

[nebo1ss]

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.

This. I have been out of the enterprise business for a few years but these figures surprise me. The reason is simple at least when i was still there. All the enterprise apps were built around a windows platform often requiring features in IE. I cannot believe it would have changed that much in a few years.

 

[ksnell]

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.

That is the exact problem I tell people about Windows. Because there is no single company to enforce a hardware floor with Windows, you end up with people comparing a $500 Windows laptop to a $2,000 Mac and say the Windows machine is crappy and the Mac is too expensive.

In reality, MacBook or Macbook Pro money would get you an extremely solid Windows machine with even better performance than the Mac in their respective categories.
[doublepost=1524760408][/doublepost]

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.

Yeah...I'm really just not convinced macOS offers much more than Photo syncing and Messages these days.

 

[ericinboston]

1. As others have said, the survey is quite biased and the sample size is far too small.
2. Macs have averaged a Market Share of about 7% for the past 30 years which is mainly consumer-only. The survey, again, is way off.
3. I work for a very large company and we get a choice between 2 Macbooks or 3 Lenovo laptops. Although I have a Mac at home for occasional use, I'm not re-learning how to do EVERYTHING on a Mac such settings/config, drive/file navigation, app install procedures, and more. I've given up on quite a few system settings on my 2017 iMac because I've spent hours already...and it seems Apple's OSes vary quite a bit from minor release to minor release which is insane. Windows 7 is Windows 7. Everytime a dot release comes out for Mac, Apple changes system settings/dialog boxes for things like Power, Screensaver, timeouts, etc.
   
4. Building on #3, my role includes far more than the average employee who reads email, reads MS Office docs, and uses web-apps while doing some light creation. My role includes that and: creating VMs, creating MS Office docs, creating videos, network troubleshooting, command line stuff, Remote desktop, and so much more. Average employees do a lot of reading with minimal creation...therefore, they could switch to a Mac or Linux because they are not spending a lot of time creating and using the tools/nav bars all day long, etc. Ask someone who creates a lot of stuff to switch to a different OS they will likely just quit. I'm not saying Mac users don't create...I'm saying people who are given a choice to switch to a different OS very often do not. Apple has been trying since 1980 (almost 40 years) to switch PC/Wintel users and Apple simply hasn't even come close.
5. For what it is worth, my opinion is that some people choose a Macbook simply because it's sexy and light...and it is! But over the past 5 years, there are tons of Wintel ultrabooks if you really want a sexy laptop. I've seen both Dell and Lenovo competitors to Macbooks and from a non-OS point of view, Wintel wins every time...tech specs, weight, price, warranty, etc. I know a handful of people at my company that switched from a Wintel to Mac "because they were so cool!" and months later they were still learning all the nuances and wanted to go back to Wintel.
6. The survey doesn't compare new hires vs. current employees needing a replacement. I would gather that yes, there surely are more and more new hires these days that would prefer a Mac simply because they already had/have a Mac. But converting Windows users to Mac users in the enterprise? Almost nobody converts.

As I have said for 30+ years...if you are used to a Mac, then buy a Mac. If you are used to a Wintel, buy a Wintel. If you want to switch platforms, you better have a good reason and are prepared to go all in and give it a serious attempt.

 

[Sevendaymelee]

Not surprising. Even if its not as stable as it was say, ten or fifteen years ago, OS X is still ridiculously more stable than Windows and when you're in enterprise, stability is key in all aspects of business.

 

[H2SO4]

Don’t see cost mentioned that regularly here.
So here’s my take;
70 something per cent will choose Macs that they DON’T have to pay for.
To me the says one of two things, either they can’t afford it in absolute terms or the cost isn’t worth what they get out of the experience.

 

[MacBH928]

I never understood why Mac platform was/is not used in the business enviroments since way back in the 90s. Whenever I ask people who work in business they usually say they use software that is availible for both platforms and pretty common software like Office, accounting software, adobe and the like...etc.

 

[dirt_farmer]

Stupid.

Who gets to "choose" their OS in enterprise?

Salespeople and possibly creatives -- in very specific departments -- at very specific enterprises.

Nobody who needs access to the engineering tools, the finance tools, the ERP, etc. is eligible for a Mac.

Even if they wanted one and IT wanted to give them one, it wouldn't be possible.

Give me a survey of all enterprise workers; not just the special "communication class" types who only need email and web browsing.

(Because enterprise applications for the Mac are nearly nonexistent.)

 

[Ramchi]

I am not sure if this such a good direction! Generally enterprise customers behave differently and they cannot be easily manipulated like ordinary consumers, yet they demand maximum attention. We know what happened to HP, Dell, IBM, Microsoft etc...

Apple probably has been successful in the recent decade due to their focus towards consumer.

Enterprise recycle frequencies, configurations, replacement, security issues, etc...might take lot of their useful time away pleasing bureaucratic enterprise hot heads.

 

[topgunn]

Don’t see cost mentioned that regularly here.
So here’s my take;
70 something per cent will choose Macs that they DON’T have to pay for.
To me the says one of two things, either they can’t afford it in absolute terms or the cost isn’t worth what they get out of the experience.

In my organization, an employee with no special job requirements gets to choose between a Lenovo T480 and a 13" MacBook Pro. Both machines have gotten more expensive over the years but the Mac still costs roughly $200 more after each is discounted. While the Lenovo is cheaper initially, we get fewer help requests for our Macs and the Mac will be worth double what the Lenovo is after 4 years of use.

 

[the johnmc]

That's not true these days. My Mac and Windows VM (on said Mac) are both managed and work well with AD.

Same. I have a couple of hundred Macs bound to AD and working just fine.

 

[kingtj]

Well, quite possibly true -- but you also have to ask why a company like JAMF would bother publicizing if it they took such a survey and got results that greatly favored Windows?

So I sort of expect anything with this conclusion would be heralded by the companies that have the most to gain from it ... the ones supporting Macs in business settings.

For what it's worth though? I work for a communications marketing company with offices all over the country, and world-wide partners. We let users pick their own computer (Mac or Windows), and let them BYOD for their cellphones. And people do choose the Mac in most cases. In fact, the primary reason we still have a meaningful percentage of Windows PCs in use is because of departments like Finance, who rely on software packages that don't have Mac versions.

As far as the cost argument goes? We decided a long time ago that we had a certain price range we would allocate towards a given laptop for a new hire. So whether you pick a PC or a Mac, you get something worth that same price. (Right now, the people who choose Windows are generally issued a Surface Pro with dock, pencil, and other accessories.) In the past, we issued Macbook Airs or HP Elitebooks to people -- again, with both coming out around the same price after accessories and dongles were factored in.

As has already been said, it was a poorly conducted survey. Also despite the lack of reference to the actual study, it was performed by JAMF, a company that sells enterprise device management solutions for Macs and iOS devices. A little biased considering all they published was a couple of conclusions. If they asked their own customers, there's already a huge selection bias that invalidates the study. From the final paragraph, it sounds like they asked their own contacts at their own customers. Let's see a link to how they explain their result?

It would be like take a poll on MacRumors "do you prefer iOS to Android" and when 90+% of responses are in favour iOS concluding that 90+% of the world population prefers iOS.

All that being said, the conclusion is still limited to "people who aren't paying for their computers and want the computers to be as expensive as possible for their employers as a sign of prestige want Apple products". It makes as much sense as asking people if they want their all expenses paid company car to be a Honda Fit or a Ferrari. That result would mean nothing in the real world, just like this survey means nothing in the real world.

 

[dirt_farmer]

Proof of how nonsensical these "statistics" are is Apple's miserable single-digit market penetration and starvation-level Mac sales.

If it were true that "half" of organizations give employees the ability to choose OS, and "most" of those employees choose Mac, Apple would sell 10x as many Macs.

Macrumors clickbait nonsense.

Anyone who has had a job knows that this is patently untrue.

You don't sit down at your desk on your first day, and have the IT department visit and say "Good morning sir, what OS would you prefer to work from today?"

Ridiculous.

 

[ipponrg]

Stupid.

Who gets to "choose" their OS in enterprise?

Salespeople and possibly creatives -- in very specific departments -- at very specific enterprises.

Nobody who needs access to the engineering tools, the finance tools, the ERP, etc. is eligible for a Mac.

Even if they wanted one and IT wanted to give them one, it wouldn't be possible.

Give me a survey of all enterprise workers; not just the special "communication class" types who only need email and web browsing.

(Because enterprise applications for the Mac are nearly nonexistent.)

Actually where I'm at (and it's a mid range tier enterprise company), many of us engineers gets to choose our OS. We use the MS Office suite here on Macs here, and they work fine. If for whatever reason we had to use Windows, VMs take care of that.

Granted as a software engineer, I'm choosing Mac over PC mainly for Unix. It's much easier to develop for unix platforms on Macs than PCs. If Macs did not have Unix support, I would've gone PC, and so would a lot of other engineers.

 

[bollman]

My uni lets people choose between 3 laptops with roughly the same price: 2 HP and the MBA. Anyone wanting more have to cough up the money through for example grants.

Since the 2016 MPBs came out with the ridiculous price hike, we've seen a 60% drop in purchases of new macs.
It usually goes something like this:
- I want a new mac
- Sure, we offer you the MacBook Air.
- Eww, I don't want that, I want a 15" MacBook Pro.
- Sure, want grant do you want us to charge $1500?
- Say what? Why is it so expensive?
- Well, ask Apple
- I don't have that kind of money!
- Well, it's the Air then.
- No, give me the PC.

 

[techwhiz]

Macs are very popular where I work.
We get a choice of a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or a regular PC laptop (forget what brand).

 

[kingtj]

Some of what you mention below is just self-fulfilling prophecy.

I did work for engineering firms who absolutely could and sometimes did use Macs. There are CAD design packages for OS X, including AutoCAD. There are products for Mac that keep track of your billable hours when billing by project.

But frankly, the majority of Engineering guys will tell you they want a Windows machine (or "need" one) simply because that's what they're familiar with and used since college. They're "not sure" about the Mac and never really tried to use one for the tasks they want to do.

Finance is a different story. That's one area where the Mac really falls flat. Even for PERSONAL finances, it was a joke how poor Quicken for Mac support was, and Quickbooks for OS X always lacked features found in its Windows counterpart. Enterprise level ERP or accounting packages practically don't exist in native OS X form. You CAN go with a cloud-based solution these days, like Microsoft Great Plains. In recent releases, they've finally gone "browser neutral" so they don't require Active-X plug-ins or other extensions that need a browser like Internet Explorer to work properly. But not every business is comfortable having all of its financials stored in the cloud.

Stupid.

Who gets to "choose" their OS in enterprise?

Salespeople and possibly creatives -- in very specific departments -- at very specific enterprises.

Nobody who needs access to the engineering tools, the finance tools, the ERP, etc. is eligible for a Mac.

Even if they wanted one and IT wanted to give them one, it wouldn't be possible.

Give me a survey of all enterprise workers; not just the special "communication class" types who only need email and web browsing.

(Because enterprise applications for the Mac are nearly nonexistent.)

 

[dirt_farmer]

Some of what you mention below is just self-fulfilling prophecy.

I did work for engineering firms who absolutely could and sometimes did use Macs. There are CAD design packages for OS X, including AutoCAD. There are products for Mac that keep track of your billable hours when billing by project.

But frankly, the majority of Engineering guys will tell you they want a Windows machine (or "need" one) simply because that's what they're familiar with and used since college. They're "not sure" about the Mac and never really tried to use one for the tasks they want to do.

Finance is a different story. That's one area where the Mac really falls flat. Even for PERSONAL finances, it was a joke how poor Quicken for Mac support was, and Quickbooks for OS X always lacked features found in its Windows counterpart. Enterprise level ERP or accounting packages practically don't exist in native OS X form. You CAN go with a cloud-based solution these days, like Microsoft Great Plains. In recent releases, they've finally gone "browser neutral" so they don't require Active-X plug-ins or other extensions that need a browser like Internet Explorer to work properly. But not every business is comfortable having all of its financials stored in the cloud.

I call it a chicken-and-egg problem: There is almost zero enterprise software for Mac, meaning that the enterprise almost never deploys mac, meaning that enterprise developers don't develop for mac.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Has been true for the 20 years that I've been following it.

I'm not saying it's good, but I am saying that the article is somewhere between utterly misleading and good old fashioned fake news.

 

[BornAgainMac]

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.

How it works is that when budgeting for hardware, they base the budget on past purchases. They don't think like a consumer and price out the hardware. And I also see a mix of Surface Books and Macbook Pros which cost around the same anyways.

 

[bobtem]

to choose their equipment of choice

My comment is about the redundant and verbose writing style that is so pervasive with the Mac Rumors staff. I love the service and content that they cover, but can you guys get some training on effective writing. Please.

101: don’t use two forms of the same word in one sentence - it’s called redundant.

 

[dirt_farmer]

Actually where I'm at (and it's a mid range tier enterprise company), many of us engineers gets to choose our OS. We use the MS Office suite here on Macs here, and they work fine. If for whatever reason we had to use Windows, VMs take care of that.

Granted as a software engineer, I'm choosing Mac over PC mainly for Unix. It's much easier to develop for unix platforms on Macs than PCs. If Macs did not have Unix support, I would've gone PC, and so would a lot of other engineers.

Software engineers are another example of the extremely narrow classes of desk workers who can pick any OS they want and thrive.

It's common to see an iMac used by a receptionist for example because they are attractive from the back and reception is mostly using MS office and the Intranet.

For almost anyone who needs enterprise software, however, it isn't some kind of a "Ford vs. Chevy" debate.

More like Ford vs lowrider lamborghini with stolen plates: Unusable the vast, vast majority of workplace scenarios, full stop.

 

[pl1984]

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.

What are you referring to?

 

[MacLawyer]

"information shared this morning by Apple IT management platform Jamf." That's all you need to know, folks.

 

[ignatius345]

This is purely anecdotal, but in my last job I managed to finagle a Mac (used Keynote as a trojan horse) while the others in my design department were on PCs. Not only was my machine -- Mac Mini -- much less expensive than theirs, but they were hassling the IT guys for fixes much more frequently than I was.

We were all using Adobe CS stuff for the most part, so there weren't any compatibility issues, and I was able to plug Mail, Calendar and Contacts right onto the Exchange server quite smoothly. I still had a PC off to the side, but the only thing I'd ever use it for was getting into the god-awful MS SharePoint system, and to occasionally test out .ppt files which had a few graphics translation issues between Windows and Mac versions.

Obviously, that's one specific graphics use-case well within the Mac's wheelhouse -- but I was surprised at how few roadbumps I ran into getting my Mac to play well in a big 99% Windows office. I remember when Macs and PCs used to have way more issues. We're in a way better place now, I think. The main obstacle is convincing caveman IT people that the Mac is a functioning platform that isn't going to ruin their systems.