New 2009 Global IT and Technology Trends Forecast : Mac Enterprise Usage Will Increase in 2009

Dec. 10, 2008 - PRLog -- BOSTON, Ma. —  The latest independent joint ITIC/Sunbelt Software  survey found that Apple Mac hardware and Mac OS X 10.x continues to shine and steadily increase its presence among corporate enterprises.
The latest data, derived from an ITIC/Sunbelt Software Web-based survey that polled over 700 C-level executives and IT managers worldwide indicates that four-out-of five businesses have Macs present in their environment.
Apple Macintosh Enterprise Usage Continues to Grow
• Over two-thirds of the 700 survey respondents – 68% -- indicated they will allow their end users to deploy Macs as their corporate enterprise desktops in the next 12 months. This is double the 34% of companies that responded to this same question in the 2008 ITIC/Sunbelt Global IT and Technology Trends Survey.
• Half of all the survey respondents – 50% -- said they plan to increase integration with existing Apple consumer products such as the iPhone to allow users to access corporate Email and other applications. This indicates that customers perceive the combination of the Mac and the iPhone to be a viable alternative to the rival Research in Motion (RIM) Blackberry as a mobile device running key corporate applications.
• Seven out of 10 businesses – 70% -- rated the security of the Apple Mac and OS X as Excellent or Very Good.
• An 82% majority of corporations rated the reliability of the Mac hardware and OS X 10.x as Excellent or Very Good.
• Approximately 30% of the survey respondents are using Macs as the hardware platform to virtualize Microsoft’s Windows XP or the Vista operating system on Macintosh hardware in a virtual environment.

“Corporations are deploying Macs and the Mac OS X 10.x at a rate not seen since the late 1980s,” said Laura DiDio, principal at ITIC who conducted the survey. “If Mac hardware and OS X 10.x deployments continue at this rate – and we believe they will – Apple could realistically double its market share from its current rate of about 5% to 10% or more by 2011,” she added.

Survey Methodology and Background
The Web-based survey included multiple choice and essay responses. In addition, ITIC and Sunbelt conducted two dozen first person customer interviews to validate the survey responses. ITIC and Sunbelt received no vendor sponsorship for this research and none of the survey respondents received any remuneration for their participation. Approximately 85% of the respondents came from North America; the remaining 15% came from 20 countries including Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South America.

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About Information Technology Intelligence Corporation (ITIC)
ITIC, founded in 2002, is a research and consulting firm in suburban Boston. It provides primary research on a wide variety of technology topics for vendors and enterprises. ITIC’s mission is to help its clients make sense of the technology and business events and provide tactical, practical and actionable advice. For more information visit ITIC’s website at: www.itic-corp.com.
About Sunbelt Software
Sunbelt Software was founded in 1994 and is a leading provider of Windows security and management software with product solutions in the areas of antispam and antivirus, antispyware, and vulnerability assessment. Leading products include the CounterSpy and VIPRE product lines. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.sunbeltsoftware.com.