Getting new Macs for your business? Think twice before you do it.

The decade old question gets settled today.

Assume that you want to upgrade the computers in your business. Would you equip your employees with MacBooks or iMacs instead of Windows PCs? Five or ten years ago, this wasn’t an argument. Windows systems were everywhere, from small businesses to big enterprises; however, situations are different nowadays.

It looks like Apple products are on the rise.

According to research from Forrester in 2012, 21% of information workers are using one or more Apple products for work. Almost 50% of enterprises with 1000 employees or more are issuing Macs to at least some employees and the numbers are still increasing. Other evidence also support this trend. A few weeks ago, Amtel evolved its MDM system to manage Mac endpoints. Some vendors started to do so even a year ago. For example, LabTech added support for Mac in May 2012, Continuum added a Mac Agent in June 2012 and last month, ManageEngine announced the addition of Apple Mac path management to its desktop central management platform.

These things are beautiful but are they worth the price?

Many people nowadays have an iPad or iPhone or both. They use their Apple products to get easy access to emails and plenty of information. Apple’s products do have many advantages. Solid industrial design, relatively less viruses compared to PC, lower server licensing fees, and great graphic design ability. But Mac’s disadvantages are also very obvious. First of all, they cost more. The cheapest Mac laptop costs $999.99 and the cheapest iMac cost $1299.00, while a $500 Windows machine can do almost the same thing or even more than those expensive Macs. Accessories like printers, routers and access points are more likely to work with Microsoft software. Apple is known for its countless apps for the iPad and iPhone, but when it comes to real work, things are different. Most business applications are still designed for a Microsoft environment and support Microsoft PCs better than Macs. Although you can run Windows on a Mac, why bother yourself with the extra troubles and potential costs if you can spend less money and get the same results? Another problem with Macs is the IT support. Although the IT service providers are catching up to the trend, the support is still not mature enough for serious business users. Extra support problems may occur if you decide to replace your Windows machines with Macs.

Stick with what works best.

Here is my advice: Unless your business heavily depends on Mac-only software or Apple’s strong points such as graphic design, you probably should stick with Microsoft products because they have better application compatibility, cheaper prices and more mature IT support.

For more infotmation regarding Apple support for your business, contact GGGroup at 212-245-1818.

Contributors: Eugene Vnuk & Alex Yakubov