Macs in the enterprise? Easy, tiger.

I feel like I see Apple popping up more and more in enterprise news these days. Headlines announcing Apple's march into the business world are appearing on enterprise-focused sites like eWeek and ComputerWorld--publications that have traditionally focused on Windows and Linux. Has something changed to make Apple a more formidable opponent in the desktop war? Not really. OS X has been a more secure, more elegant and more user-friendly alternative to Windows for years now. What has changed is Apple's standing in the public eye: the company's PR machine reached it's apex in January, grabbing front page headlines the world over with its iPhone announcement. Is the iPhone cool? You bet. But did the equally cool iPod and iMac get this much coverage in the mainstream press upon their release? Not even close.

So Apple headlines sell and publications want to cash in, right? Well, there's a bit more at play than just that. Macs have always been fringe machines, favored by creative professionals like graphic designers, digital musicians and the tech literati. Sporting a Mac has always been "cool," but only recently has that cache become mainstream enough for even the herds of enterprise folks to catch on. Many enterprise tech writers have taken up Apple on its switcher campaign, gleefully running diary-style articles detailing their day-to-day exploits as new switchers; a sort of LiveJournal for the Mac-curious.

Such is the case with a new article from ComputerWorld, titled "Why Microsoft Should Fear Apple." About halfway down the first page, the author admits that he's a new convert and he can barely contain his excitement as he announces this. Listen buddy, I don't blame you--I was the same way after I first spent time with OS X in my University's computer science lab. But I still find it hard to get behind the idea that Apple is going to make a noticeable dent on the enterprise market anytime soon. Sure, Macs can now run Windows, Linux and just about any app that you throw at them and run them well to boot, thanks to snappy Intel processors. But they're also still expensive, suffer from a shortage of native enterprise apps and lack the extensive support industry that Microsoft products boast.

ComputerWorld claims that Apple's dominance will come not in numbers but in "perception," that is to say that the deafening industry buzz that we've all noticed will eventually help turn the tide. "What this is about is that Apple is reaching the right people with its product, winning new converts, Windows user by Windows user--and creating buzz." Okay, fair enough. But none of this is really new, it's just that more people are paying attention now. Industry buzz is one thing but it won't make or break a platform that's a hard sell to IT buyers--at least not overnight. If Apple was serious about the enterprise, it would slash prices, offer larger discounts to bulk buyers, court more enterprise software vendors and market aggressively to IT. Instead, the company seems increasingly focused on consumer electronics: an industry where it's easy to get by on buzz alone and where consensus can change in a heartbeat. I love my Mac but buzz or no buzz, I don't expect I'll be bringing it into work anytime soon. - Mehan