Apple saw its PC marketshare in the US improve to 11.3 per cent last year according to IDC. This may not seem a significant figure - after all, it means that almost 90 per cent of buyers still opt for Windows machines.
Yet we’ve all noticed the growing trend, with business executives steadily ditching their Blackberries in favour of the iPhone, increased sightings of the iPad in meetings, and the seemingly never ending trail of hype around all things Apple.
It’s easy to dismiss and even dislike what Apple has done to IT. Many people still maintain the company sells over-priced fashion accessories. But love them or loath them, it is our duty as IT professionals to at least understand why users are falling for the cult of Mac in such an alarming way.
Perhaps the biggest problem that IT shops have with Apple is a loss of control. Windows is preferred because it is such an open system, and IT pros can tweak and tinker with it almost without limit. Apple products are the antithesis of this freestyle approach, with users forced to use Apple approved tools, and with very little customisation allowed. This closed world mentality understandably offends IT pros, who object to Apple’s arrogance; the assumption that it knows best and everyone should work in the same uniform way. In short, Apple undermines the knowledge and experience that the IT department has worked hard to gain.
However, it is imperative that we look at both sides of this argument. Our customers are sadly not interested in our egos or indeed the IT infrastructure we have nurtured. The loss of control and customisation that we fear is in fact very appealing to our users. Why have a complex dashboard control panel when you can have an app sat on your smartphone? Why offer endless functionality (Microsoft Word) when most people want a word processor that allows for smart looking presentations to be made if needed (Apple’s Pages)?
People are happily ‘giving up‘ the control they had over IT, because they didn’t want it in the first place. Take the analogy of the car. Yes, there are those who want to tinker and understand every component of the vehicle, but the majority of people want a car that starts first time on their driveway.
Apple, and increasingly Google with its Android platform, are succeeding because they have adhered to the golden rule of business: give the customers what they want (even if they don’t realise they want it yet). We should all be mindful of this fact and, rather than shunning technology because of our own preferences, try to understand why our customers want it and adjust our focus accordingly. Unless we do this, we will find that customers simply side-step the IT department in favour of buying their own technology.
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