Hell freezes over: Forrester urges IT to support the Mac
The voice of Windows in the enterprise discovers that Mac users are more productive — Click to enlarge. — That 41% of enterprises won't let Apple (AAPL) PCs anywhere near their computing services — not even e-mail or the Internet …
Context & Ripple Effects
The enterprise Mac has traveled a long arc: back in 2005, job seekers were warned off using a Mac, and by early 2009 IT shops were still trading war stories about the friction of bringing Macs into business environments. The inflection came this spring, when corporate Mac sales surged 66% (AppleInsider, May 2011), forcing analysts to take adoption seriously rather than treat it as a niche.
Now Forrester — long the voice of Windows-centric enterprise IT — has flipped its own framing, urging IT departments to support the Mac on productivity grounds. The sticking point it surfaces: 41% of enterprises still bar Apple PCs from their computing services outright, down to e-mail and web access.
First-order effects
- The 41% of enterprises that block Apple PCs face direct pressure to justify those bans, since the analyst firm setting their evaluation criteria is now arguing Mac users are more productive.
- Apple gains an enterprise sales argument it has never had from this quarter: IT buyers can no longer cite Forrester-style guidance as cover for Windows-only policies.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft and its management-tool ecosystem must respond to a growing class of customers demanding Mac support in directory, security, and desktop-management stacks, or cede that budget line.
- Helpdesk and procurement priorities shift toward dual-platform support skills, raising costs for IT shops that stay Windows-only while competitors hire for both.
Third-order effects
- If analyst guidance keeps tracking employee preference, enterprise computing standardizes around supporting whatever workers bring rather than whatever IT decrees — the consumerization dynamic that began with e-mail access spreading to full device support.
- A durable Mac-management services layer could emerge between Apple and corporate IT, since Apple sells hardware but leaves the integration burden to third parties.
The trend: Enterprise IT is shifting from Windows-by-default lockdown toward supporting employee-preferred devices, with analyst firms like Forrester converting grassroots Mac adoption into official policy.