Way over a million M1 Macs already being used in business

Apple’s M-series Mac range.

Jamf has struck a chord with a surprising piece of news today, announcing that it has so far helped organizations deploy approximately one million Apple Silicon Macs powered by the M1 family of chips.

That means over a million Macs are business machines

The news means over a million Macs are now in use worldwide in business and education. It also suggests that Apple has sold far, far more than a million of its brand-new high-performance Apple Silicon machines across the last year.  The news confirms what we thought: Businesses are migrating to Mac. In doing so they are driven by employee choice, cost savings and security.

“We’ve seen tremendous momentum for Macs with M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max in the market, highlighting Apple’s focus on computing power, efficiency and simplifying the customer transition to Apple Silicon on the Mac,” said Dean Hager, CEO, Jamf.

“More than ever, since the arrival of M1, it is clear that giving employees the most powerful products, and the ones that they love has a huge impact on team morale, and ultimately, workplace productivity.”

What’s really important to consider here is that Jamf is just one vendor, and while it is the biggest there are others, which implies the number of M-series Macs now in use as business machines is way higher. After all, many businesses rely on their own internal tech support, or don’t use any form of MDM vendor. These many millions of Mac sales took place in just 12-months.

That’s significant

Today, nearly 74% of Jamf customers already have at least one M-series Mac, the company said. It also pointed to research conducted by Jamf which shows 91% of respondents report benefits from an employee-choice program, including increased productivity, positivity and feeling more valued. Companies like SAP and Electric, and schools like Bartlett are seeing the benefits.

Jamf helps customers deploy more Mac desktops and notebooks in enterprise than any company in the world, including serving the Mac needs of 23 of the top 25 brands in the world as ranked by Forbes.

What Apple said

Apple’s recent introduction of Apple Business Essentials did set some thinking that the close Jamf/Apple relationship may be challenged. This doesn’t appear to be the case. Apple’s enterprise team says it just wants to make things easier for businesses, while Jamf CEO Dean Hager recently told me that when Apple innovates, his company celebrates.

It is perhaps a mark of the strength of this association that Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Enterprise and Education Marketing added comment to Jamf’s latest announcement.

[Also read: Amazon now offers M1 Mac mini as a service through AWS]

“It’s been incredible to see the enthusiasm and momentum for the Mac lineup powered by the M1 family of chips among innovative businesses, prestigious learning institutions, and beyond,” she said.

“It’s a testament to their reputation and strength in the market that Jamf is working with tens of thousands of business and education customers, providing solutions that help ensure everyone can do their best work on the Mac.”

What benefits do M-series Macs bring?

We are also being given a little insight into the benefits of Apple Silicon.

• SAP has deployed 3,500 Macs powered by M1 using Jamf in the last year, adding to its 30,000 total Mac fleet. SAP developers saw “remarkable” results regarding speed and app performance, resulting in increased cost efficiency. SAP has offered employee choice since 2008 and has seen demand for Mac quickly increase since then. SAP also has deployed over 70,000 iPhones and 17,500 iPads with Jamf.
• IT tech company and Jamf partner, Electric, manages a fleet of over 26,800 Apple devices for its small and medium-sized customers. The company has seen 158% growth in deployment of Mac devices this year.
• Bartlett City Schools, an 8,500 student and 1,100 employee school system just outside of Memphis, Tennessee, deployed nearly 6,000 M-series Macs. The district used Jamf for these deployments and claims doing so cut at least two weeks from the time it expected to roll out its new Mac fleet. The new Macs powered by M1 make up around 45% of the district’s total device count, with 7,800 more iPadOS and tvOS devices, all managed by Jamf.

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