Forrester: Apple nearly quadruples enterprise share
Ben Gray, analyst at Forrester Research, says that Mac OS X accounts for 4.5 percent of the business operating system market, 3¾ times their share in January 2007.
Computerworld notes that all this has happened with one thing notably absent: an enterprise strategy. “I haven’t seen anything from Apple that seems to show it’s attack[ing] the enterprise market,” Gray said.
He says the gains in market share are due to two trends: client virtualization (using software like Parallels or VMWare) and the idea that corporate IT departments are more willing to support a broader range of hardware and software.
“In the end, [IT departments] want their employees to be as productive as humanly possible, so they’ll approve tools that people are more comfortable with,” said Gray.
In related news, Windows’ overall share of the corporate market dipped slightly from 95.6 to 94.9 percent for the same time period. [Via Macworld.]
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Macs being installed in cruise ships, hotels
Yesterday we posted a tip about using your iPhone on a cruise ship, but what about if you want to use a Mac on a ship or in a hotel and you don’t have a MacBook to take along with you?
AppleInsider’s Prince McLean is reporting that installations of Macs in hotels and on cruise ships are going strong, with thousands of Apple machines being sold for installation in those locations by Apple’s Enterprise Sales Group. Back in June we mentioned the Fontainebleau’s plans in Vegas — they’re also installing another 1,400 24″ iMacs in rooms at the flagship resort in Miami Beach.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has Mac minis installed on its Freedom Class (3,600 passenger) ships, and is working with Apple on IT infrastructure for its upcoming Oasis Class (5,400 passenger) liners. The deployments planned will have up to 16,150 Ethernet drops per ship, racks full of Xserves, and thousands of client Macs.
Whether it’s an in-room email and information kiosk, a public information center, or an intelligent set-top box, the Mac is definitely making inroads into the hospitality and travel industry.
[via AppleInsider]
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Axel Springer AG moves to Mac
Axel Springer AG, Germany’s largest newspaper publisher, is moving its entire organization — 12,000 computers — to the Mac platform. Axel Springer will become Apple’s largest corporate customer in Europe, and second largest customer worldwide. (Google is number one.)
The article is only available in German so far.
Axel Springer owns Bild and Bild am Sonntag, tabloid-style dailies (not unlike The Sun in the UK or the New York Post in the U.S.) and several magazines sold under the Bild brand. The company currently uses large-scale publishing solutions from WoodWing Software and CCI, both of which support Mac clients.
In a video message to employees, CEO Matthias Döpfner cited ease-of-use, appearance, and total cost of ownership in the reason to switch. Employees can start buying and using Macs and iPhones this month, though the entire organization will be migrated over the course of a year or two. Thanks Alex, Rouven, and bimbum for the tip (and the help with the German)!
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Alliance to advocate for Macs in the enterprise
Five companies, Atempo, Centrify, GroupLogic, LANrev, and Parallels have joined forces to form the Enterprise Desktop Alliance, which will promote the deployment of Macs in the enterprise. All of the companies focus on integrating Mac OS X with Windows and PC-based network infrastructures.
Peter Frankl, chief operating officer at LANrev, says it wants IT departments to know they can successfully integrate Mac solutions for their large businesses.
For now, the consortium offers little more than product information about each member company’s software, but Frankl says the organization wants to create a resource for IT pros to share best practices.
MacEnterprise.org is a well-known community of IT professionals with similar goals, but without the financial clout of the five-company consortium. The organization has not yet responded to a request for comment.
[Via Infoworld]
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Apple posts new online seminars
One of the hidden gems of Apple.com is the collection of free web seminars available 24/7 that cover a wide range of topics and applications. A few weeks ago, Mat posted about the iWork for Business seminar, but a lot of other new seminars have been posted recently.
Some of the highlights:
- Mac for Computer Forensics and e-discovery
- New to the Mac for business users
- Podcast Producer
- News and Sports editing with Final Cut Pro
While a lot of the newest additions are aimed at OS X Leopard Server users or for business users, many of the tips and techniques can be applied for home users too. If none of the new seminars strike your fancy, the existing library of seminars offers some really nice introductions for creating podcasts, using Final Cut Studio or Aperture, and managing a Mac-based network.
Although the video seminars are free, registration is required. Thanks, Corey!
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