Macs Gaining Traction in the Enterprise

A new Wall Street Journal article underscores the rapidly growing traction of Macs in the enterprise space. The piece, written by Rachael King, recounts the decision by Peter Yared, chief technology officer at CBS Interactive (NYSE: CBS), to replace employee computers with Macs as opposed to PCs. "It used to be cost-prohibitive to run Macs in the enterprise, and that equation changed recently with the MacBook Air,” Yared said. As a result, the company is buying between 100-150 Macs per quarter to replace older PCs. According to a report from Forrester, around 46% of corporations now issue Macs to employees. This represents an incredible 50% growth rate over the course of the last two years. “The use of iPads and iPhones in the workplace is creating increased awareness and consideration of Macs,” said Frank Gillett, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. While company usage has been skyrocketing, the actual number of employees who use Macs on a daily basis is still small, indicating that corporations are still using them as a niche device. Forrester's Gillett told the Wall Street Journal that only around 7% of corporate computers are Macs. Nevertheless, the adoption of Mac in the enterprise has been an oft-overlooked trend for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). With business sales of Macs growing 50.9% in 2011, the company will likely continue to benefit from momentum in the enterprise space.