Apple May Have Eye on Enterprise Market

Industry observers such as Yankee Group Senior Analyst Laura DiDio report there may be increasing corporate interest in Apple, even though it may be more of the company's traditional specialty markets in media, graphics, education and entertainment.

"They are mounting a modest comeback, according to some of the companies I talk to," DiDio told MacNewsWorld. However, DiDio stressed the apparent corporate comeback is modest, and that without more enterprise effort from Apple, the company will continue to be limited to its single digit percentage share of the market.

"It's a modest uptick. Steve Jobs is going to have to do a lot more than he's doing," she added, referring mainly to price and marketing. "They're really going to have to go out of their way. They can't just say my operating system is better than your operating system."

Mac, Microsoft, Office

Apple's announced switch to Intel and its processor architecture -- the basis for Windows systems and the majority of corporate and consumer users -- has elicited speculation about Mac OS X running on PCs, Windows on Macs, and overall closer integration between the two competing computer platforms.

Analysts said while Apple has signaled it will not support its software for non-Apple hardware, the company may allow its future, Intel-based Macs to run Windows.

For its part, Apple touted Microsoft Office support in its latest Tiger operating system (OS), which is poised to surpass two million sales and represents the company's fastest-selling OS ever.

"With the new technologies in Tiger, we worked closely with Apple to ensure that Office 2004 customers would benefit by making it even easier to search, share and manage information," said a statement from Roz Ho, Microsoft general manager of the Macintosh Business Unit.

A Chance with Challenges

Yankee Group's DiDio indicated IT managers recently reported plans to install more Mac desktops in their environments, particularly at the request of corporate end users who needed Mac's "superlative graphics capabilities to to their specific jobs."

And although DiDio said corporate managers are impressed with the reliability of Macs and users tend to be somewhat self supportive, a wider IT switch to Mac would force support training, different licensing and more spending.

"They have a chance. They are trying to capitalize on it, but they're going to have to put their money where their mouth is," she added, referring to free training, support and lower prices from Apple.

Compatibility and Concern

IDC Vice President Roger Kay said enterprise customers are driven by compatibility more than almost any other thing, telling MacNewsWorld IT managers are probably not in favor of using Macs.

End users, however, may be interested in the superior capabilities of a Mac, Kay said. Still, the analyst did not see Apple moving beyond its traditional pockets of industry and smaller businesses.

Kay also indicated whatever technology Apple uses to integrate its software with Intel chips is likely to come under heavy attack from a security perspective.

"Whatever scheme they use to tie the hardware to the software, hackers will get interested in it very quickly," Kay said. "Hackers consider it a challenge."

Same Old Apple?

Gartner (NYSE: IT) Research Vice President Mike Silver said it is difficult to see Apple moving beyond its current strongholds in business, such as media and graphics.

"The typical business user -- most companies or close to 100 percent of them are on Windows," Silver told MacNewsWorld. "With [Apple's recent Intel chip] announcement, we haven't heard anything that suggests that's going to change."

"If Apple was to enable Mac OS X on Intel machines other than its own, which is a bit risky for them, that could spur more corporate interest," Silver added. "At this point, they haven't said they're going to do that. They've said just the opposite."