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Companies that use OS X

V

v-roc

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 13, 2008
21
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I've converted over to using macs last year with a macbook and then the iphone and have never looked back. It pains me now when I have to go into work and everything is ran on windows and I have to use my work laptop (Dell) 8+ hrs a day. Does anybody know of any companies that use Macs for the majority of their employees and business. Not that I'm thinking about leaving my company but I'm just curious to see. I've never seen any business' use macs except for the ones I see one apple.com's business section and the little carts in the malls. :D
 
You mean aside from Apple, yes? This is a silly and overly broad question isn't it? :rolleyes: You might consider telling us what it is you do for a living? I mean if you're an auto mechanic or you do TV/VCR repair or maybe you're a construction worker, I doubt you'll find employment in front of a Mac. If you're a nurse, a veterinarian, you work in a Nike shoe factory, or you're a gardener, again, you probably won't have an employer-provided Mac.

A computer a tool - nothing more, and the tools you're provided for your job depend entirely on what job you are performing! Duh!!

I think most any large business uses Macs. Not for the general cubicle farm slobs, but for the creative types in the marketing department. Also popular in the Education market - lots of Xserves and Mac Pro's at univ IT depts. Some scientific apps run on OS X as well. I even know some technicians that work for HP who convinced their bosses to buy them Macbooks - they needed a portable UNIX laptop (and not Linux) so HP bought them some Macbooks. Software development houses use Macs in their QA labs to test for platform compatibility. The list goes on...
 
I work in the benefits administration field as an analyst. Over the past year I've seen the great things that can be done with OS X (especially with X-code) and I'm not finding many companies that use OS X. Just by my observation it seems like the corporate world doesn't see what OS X is capable of. hopefully iPhone 2.0 will change that and we will see more companies make the switch. But as of now I just don't see any macs in corporate america.
 
My step-dad's company is starting to convert to apple. It is a family owned business. When he needed a new computer I pushed for a MBP, and now they are looking at xserves. I also am sort of Tech Support for them and the rest of the family so I help with a lot of their tech decisions now. My Step-dad and his sister like the Apples but his brother his slowly crossing to the light side. He has used PC's for years and has 2 modded Dells that are getting old and he is looking at a Mac Pro.......
 
lupin..the..3rd said:
You mean aside from Apple, yes? This is a silly and overly broad question isn't it? :rolleyes: You might consider telling us what it is you do for a living? I mean if you're an auto mechanic or you do TV/VCR repair or maybe you're a construction worker, I doubt you'll find employment in front of a Mac. If you're a nurse, a veterinarian, you work in a Nike shoe factory, or you're a gardener, again, you probably won't have an employer-provided Mac.

A computer a tool - nothing more, and the tools you're provided for your job depend entirely on what job you are performing! Duh!!
.
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Could you be any more rude to the OP? There's no such thing as a silly question on this forum and it's actually a very fair question. I for one would like to walk into any random business/corporation and see it being ran by Mac OS X rather than Windows.

I've seen a few companies but are usually companies that develop software or small businesses around San Francisco (where I live) that have all Macs but it would be nice if we could see banks and financial institutions using Macs especially since security is much better on OS X.
 
I would also like to note that a lot of companies use Mac Pros and Power Macs in their print and design/advertising departments. The companies that my cousin works for has A big room of macs for ads. Same thing goes for just about every company/office I have been to that a family member took me to work with to pick something up or just to hang around.
 
Well, the local high-end kid's toy store has an iMac which is at least a G5. So, I know it's running OS X.

But, they're only a two person operation. So, probably not much hope for you there :p

Besides them, I can't really remember seeing any Macs around. You could probably go to some of the national Mac places like OWC (Other World Computing), Mac Mall, Mac Life Magazine, Mac World Magazine, or places like that if you really wanted a job that used Macs.

But, you'll probably have a hard time finding a job if the primary draw is the computer (unless it's a Mac publication or something like that).
 
Our offices are entirely Mac. Most of the work that's undertaken is programming, but everyone uses them for whatever they'd have to use a PC for.

Oh my god, the administration is a dream. There's no way a typical 'IT Department' would allow a Mac revolution in their company. They would, quite simply, become redundant.
 
There's a little shop near my house that uses Macs at the counter, my dad uses a Mac for all his business stuff, that's really all I've seen.
 
I wonder if enterprise business software is even available for Macs? I'm talking about Oracle's ERP system, or SAP... Stuff like that.

For small companies it is probably easier to switch than huge international companies who rely on a lot of different applications to drive their business.

--Erwin
 
Erwin-Br said:
I wonder if enterprise business software is even available for Macs?
Click to expand...

This is why Boot Camp & Parallels/Fusion are such a revolution.

Slowly, the barrier comes down.

OP, there are few companies that are Mac only bent. There are a lot with a hybrid environment. You will certainly have to look a bit harder, but they are out there.
 
Erwin-Br said:
I wonder if enterprise business software is even available for Macs? I'm talking about Oracle's ERP system, or SAP... Stuff like that.

For small companies it is probably easier to switch than huge international companies who rely on a lot of different applications to drive their business.

--Erwin
Click to expand...

A lot of larger companies use SalesForce, which is CRM I know, but it's web based. I think a lot of the larger ERP systems are web ready, so it makes the transition that much easier...slowly things are a changing...
 
lupin..the..3rd said:
If you're a nurse, a veterinarian, you work in a Nike shoe factory, or you're a gardener, again, you probably won't have an employer-provided Mac.
Click to expand...

In the Nike shoe factory you might not, but if you work at headquarters, you will. Nike recently decided to switch to the Macintosh platform. :cool:
 
the company i work for uses macs unless we have to use windows computers.

we switched when a customer of ours stopped buying a chemical of ours with no real reason for doing so. Few months later they introduced a product that was a exact copy of ours. Some of our paper work with our name on it :p.

From that day forth the owner said we would never use a computer with their parts in it.
 
HLdan said:
Could you be any more rude to the OP? There's no such thing as a silly question on this forum and it's actually a very fair question. I for one would like to walk into any random business/corporation and see it being ran by Mac OS X rather than Windows.
Click to expand...

Yes, actually I could have been quite a bit more rude, but unlike yourself, I chose not to. It is a silly and unfair question if pertinent information is omitted. It's like if I asked what businesses use 7.62 mm ammunition? or 4 cylinder diesel engines? or poisonous plants? or stainless steel tweezers? These things are all meaningless without some frame of reference. OP followed up with said information which turned his previously silly question into a non-silly question. :D

Most large businesses use the cheapest computers they can, we're talking $300 peecee's. It would cost them a fortune to replace them all with thousand dollar Macs. The only folks who get the nice hardware are those people who do more than MS Office and web and email. I do think Macs are more prevalent in small private business though - the local machine shop here uses an old tibook for example.
 
lupin..the..3rd said:
Most large businesses use the cheapest computers they can, we're talking $300 peecee's. It would cost them a fortune to replace them all with thousand dollar Macs. The only folks who get the nice hardware are those people who do more than MS Office and web and email. I do think Macs are more prevalent in small private business though - the local machine shop here uses an old tibook for example.
Click to expand...

Actually, I have consulted for several fortune 500 companies and not a single one used cheap PCs. They use quality PC equipment from HP and IBM - at a cost similar to Apple's hardware offerings.

Instead, many of these companies suffer from vendor lock-in. They have long-standing hardware/software contracts that don't allow them to migrate off a PC platform without requiring an unrealistic investment.
 
I watch the show "Around the Horn" every now and then on ESPN. Look in the background of Jay Mariotti's place at the Chicago newspaper. You will see brand stankin' new iMacs.
 
Erwin-Br said:
I wonder if enterprise business software is even available for Macs? I'm talking about Oracle's ERP system, or SAP... Stuff like that.
Click to expand...

If SAP worked on OS X work would never hear the end of it from me. I would love to use a Mac instead of the darn XP machine I'm stuck with.
 
Osarkon said:
If SAP worked on OS X work would never hear the end of it from me. I would love to use a Mac instead of the darn XP machine I'm stuck with.
Click to expand...

I guess someone forgot that Macs can run windows.

So yes it'll run on a Mac, not in OSX, but can run alongside of OSX with VMWare or Parallels. (or you can boot into windows on an Apple computer).
 
Retail-J make Point of Sale systems for stores and shops checkout systems.

The software is both Mac and PC compatible. We have it running on PC's in my company but I think Apple Stores also have Retail-J running on their Mac's in the UK.
 
My local Vet uses iMacs at all the point of sales and in all the rooms. They have all the pets documents in a large database (sorry don't know which one). When the doctor needs to know something he jumps on the iMac and pulls up the chart. Can also do all the perscriptions etc on it and it prints out at the front desk and pharmacy in the back.

It is super nice to walk in and see all the iMacs sitting at the counter.

Here is the company in question: http://www.vcalakewoodca.com/index.asp
 
Osarkon said:
If SAP worked on OS X work would never hear the end of it from me. I would love to use a Mac instead of the darn XP machine I'm stuck with.
Click to expand...

SAP have a Java client called SAPGUI that runs natively on OS X. It lacks the Microsoft Office Integration that the windows client has, but other than that it is pretty much identical to the Windows version. Apple use SAP as their ERP system.

It is available from their FTP site ftp://ftp.sap.com/pub/sapgui/java/
 
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