Apple is expanding beyond its creative industry base

A few months ago I spoke with Jamf CEO, Dean Hager, who told me that Apple “has become an HR” issue. He pointed to his company’s own research that proved it. Today we hear something similar from a big IT services company.

Seventy-five percent Apple

Canada’s CDWis a major force in IT. It serves clients across education, government, healthcare, retail and the enterprise and it’s no all-Apple shop – it’s front page even tries to convince people of the merits of Microsoft Surface.

That’s why when a company that serves such a wide client brief says most new employees prefer Apple when given the choice one really needs to pay attention. That’s exactly what the company is saying, claiming three-quarters of employees would choose to use an Apple product given the chance. That’s probably why 100 percent of Fortune 500 firms now support iOS on their networks.

That integration thing

CDW and Apple today announced a new ‘Apple at Work’ offering in which the Canadian company offers to help enterprises deploy Apple kit across their enterprise, including (of course) integration to enable Macs, iPhones and other Apple systems to work happily with those old legacy PCs some companies still choose to keep around.

There’s a host of information that justifies enterprise use of Apple tech on the CDW site, but it’s nice that it mentioned the general low cost of ownership, lack of need for tech support, and high resale value Apple products acquire even after three years use (a typical budget period for an enterprise).

“Apple at Work is a rallying cry around the concept that we use Apple technology as consumers at home, but aren’t always able to use them in the workplace,” Daniel Reio, director of product and partner management at CDW Canada told IT Canada.“The ‘Wintel’ platform scenario has been solid for many years, but CDW is looking to assist customers in enabling Apple technology in their environments.”

Interesting times.

I’m curious to see Apple’s share of the PC market continue to rise.