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Seven Reasons to Think Twice About Macs in the Enterprise

Apple commercials show the ultra-cool Mac mocking the pinstriped PC. Macs, it seems, don't care to be businesslike--they'd rather be up late mixing video. And there are other, more pragmatic reasons to keep them out of the enterprise--reasons that a penny-pinching CFO would understand.

By Lynn Greiner

August 01, 2007 — CIO —

The Macintosh is not a machine that has made major inroads into the enterprise, except in specific niches, and, religious fervor of the Mac faithful notwithstanding, there are sound reasons for the phenomenon.

Before you Mac enthusiasts break out the boiling oil and pitchforks, take a deep breath and repeat after me: "No one platform is perfect for every application." That's right, even your beloved Mac has its own Achilles' heels.

Our goal here is to discuss why the Mac and the enterprise don't necessarily mix well, couched in terms the enterprise knows best: dollars, either direct or indirect. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride-here are seven reasons why enterprises should think twice before deploying Macs.

Think the argument in this article is a load of hooey? Believe that it's the most accurate examination of the Mac in the enterprise? Be sure to read the other viewpoint in Eight Financial Reasons Why You Should Use Mac OS.

1. The Mac is proprietary. Even the Intel Mac. No one else is allowed to build them. If something happens to Apple (not necessarily taking the company down, but even an issue with its suppliers that impacts production), customers will be stuck in a nasty situation. Granted, I'm sure third parties would leap forward to take up the slack in maintenance if Apple disappeared, as has happened with other orphaned systems, but the transition would leave corporations vulnerable. And they would be without a source of replacement systems and parts, hence forced to do expensive, probably abrupt and unwanted technology transitions.

2. There's a limited selection of models and configurations. If what Apple offers doesn't suit your needs, you're out of luck (see reason #1) -you either have to go with an inadequate configuration and lose productivity, or spend extra money for unnecessary oomph. The selection is better than it used to be (and you can even reconfigure some models, as you can PCs), but you don't have the scope you'd have with a PC. For example, there are three basic MacBook Pro models, while Dell currently offers nine Latitude (enterprise-class laptop) models.

3. Hardware still costs more. For example, check out this comparison of a MacBook Pro and a Dell Latitude D830, configured to be as close to identical as possible. These are list prices; for quantity purchases, corporate discounts depending on overall purchase volumes would obviously apply.

	Apple MacBook Pro	Dell Latitude D830
CPU	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz
Display	15.4"	15.4"
Video	NVidia 8600, 128 MB	NVidia Quadro 128 MB
RAM	2 GB DDR2 667	2 GB DDR2 667
Hard disk	120 GB 5400 RPM SATA	120 GB 5400 RPM SATA
Optical	8X DL SuperDrive	8X DVD-RW
Ethernet	Gigabit	Gigabit
Wireless	802.11n	802.11a/g/n
Bluetooth	Yes	Yes
PC Card	No	Yes
ExpressCard	ExpressCard/34	ExpressCard/54 & 34
USB ports	2	3
FireWire	2	1
Modem	External	Internal
Camera	Yes	No
Warranty	1 yr std, exp to 3 yrs	3 yrs
Weight	5.4 lb	5.97 lb
Price as configured	$2397	$1868

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