It’s increasingly clear that managed service providers now need to support Apple Macintoshes, Mac OS and the iPhone.
I’m not suggesting that mass migrations from Windows to the Apple Mac are under way. But the latest anecdotal evidence suggests you’re leaving money on the table if Apple, Macs and iPhones aren’t part of your managed services portfolio. Consider the facts — or at least the trends:
- Nearly 80 percent of large businesses have Macs in-house, which is nearly double the percentage from a year ago, according to Yankee Group. I wish the survey covered small businesses as well… but it’s clear that big enterprises increasingly have pockets of Macintoshes.
- Apple hopes to sell at least 10 million iPhones in 2008, which would established Apple as “one of the major smartphone makers in less than two years since it began shipping the original iPhone,” notes The New York Times.
- Progressive MSPs such as Azaleos and mindSHIFT support the iPhone, with an emphasis on Exchange Server connectivity. In fact, mindSHIFT says it now supports the “Apple Product Line” (including Macs) across small and midsize businesses.
- MSP platform providers such as Kaseya are adding Mac support to their lineup. I suspect some platform providers already offer Mac support (can anybody confirm?).
Full disclosure: I’m a Mac user myself, so I tend to believe Apple will continue to gain market share in business.
I don’t think Macs represent a huge opportunity for MSPs — but I do believe they will be a “check mark” on a list of future support requirements from SMB customers. Agree? Disagree?
Posted In: Research | Research and Markets
Tags: Apple | iPhone | iPhone 3G | Mac OS X | Macintosh | Managed Service Provider | Managed Services | MSP
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Agreed- we work with both Macs and Windows computers and specialize in integrating the two on a network. I wish there was a MSP app that ran on Mac OS, but at least we can get monitoring from a Windows PC via LPI scripts.
We’re seeing more and more Macs, coming from the top, down. It’s been hard in the past because the Mac users were mostly employees fending for themselves and even paying us themselves to get support. Now, as execs buy Macs and want to use them, we’re getting more calls.
Macs are still not a huge percentage of our income, but it’s getting better and more frequent.
-Craig
Craig: Does virtualization complicate this effort? I would imagine a lot of those Macs are running Boot Camp, Parallels, VMware or something else for users to mix and match Windows with Mac OS.
While I completely agree that MSPs should start supporting MAC computers and the iPhone but I would suggest that it may be just a little too soon still.
At Everon we now support the iPhone with a focus on exchange integration and feel we will have great success in doing so.
We have also supported MAC computers for years but have never publicly marketed the fact due to the complications dual boot and integration into windows networks presents.
Every client wants their MAC to dual boot and integrate with their windows network but none want to give up the features they have in their outlook email or pay the bill for the time it takes to get it all working properly.
I would suggest we are still 6-12 months away from this making sense.
JC
I would think that it also depends a bit on verticals, where publishing and education would be slightly ahead of the curve. Also, I’m hearing about more and more pockets of macs in hospitality (hotels, casinos, etc.).
Virtualization complicates only because of the few Windows apps some of our customers need to use (Real Estate, CRM, etc.). Some users have problems moving back and forth and understanding when to use the VM and when they are using the Mac OS.
It’s been this way forever though because we’ve always used Virtual PC the same way, so it’s not new to us.
And we haven’t had an issues with customers paying the bills. They understand they have to learn a new way of doing things and we let them know up front it might not be easy and that means it’s going to cost more. We also let them know, if they call us first, that buying a Mac may not be in their best interest if they’re going to be using the Windows VM more than the Mac OS.
-Craig