Do Apple products belong in the business world at all?

Here are a few questions IT admins, executives, and department leaders need to ask in light of Bring Your Own Device trends, persistent issues with weak passwords in the workplace, and a growing desire to keep end-user gadgets in check in the enterprise. Do Apple products and technology even belong in business at all? Are they creating more headaches for admins? Or are there a few improvements that make Apple products more palatable?

That first question is the burning issue here, especially given how much Apple dominates in the tablet market, alongside the company's increasing market share with MacBooks. The iPhone may be losing market share to Android, but it's still a popular consumer phone and one that often shows up in the enterprise.

In July, a shockwave of epic proportions hinted at a better future for Apple in the corporate environment. IBM and Apple announced that they would start working together. (That's a bit like Facebook agreeing to bring MySpace back from the dead.) The partnership involves new enterprise-grade apps specifically designed for iOS and new device management and security platforms.

Device management issues

For most IT leaders, the issue of which devices can be used on a corporate campus or a large enterprise environment begins and ends with management. According to well-known Apple analyst Ben Bajarin from Creative Strategies, Apple has made recent strides in the areas of manageability and asset control to help companies track the devices. He also says Apple products can "play nice" in the enterprise with other Linux and Windows products.

"The Macs continued support of dual-booting to Windows or having Windows running in a virtual machine is still a critical feature," Bajarin says. This means IT can add the devices to existing management suites and have them adhere to company policies while running Windows, but the end-users can still boot into the Mac OS at home and use the same form-factor they like.

In terms of the iPhone and iPad, Apple has added features that help end-users find lost devices, which helps with the management chore and with security issues if a hacker obtains the device and tries to steal company data. "For iOS they are also doing key things in device management and security that are making them more than just a real player in the enterprise but a standard."

Van Baker, a research vice president for mobility at Gartner, says Apple has made some headway. In the last two releases of iOS, Apple has included more open APIs that let device management tools from companies like XenMobile and Good track their use. New features for device enrolment in these apps now also work in more countries.

Challenges ahead

Even though many analysts are not ready to discount Apple in large companies – the ultimate answer to the question of whether they belong in business is a resounding yes – there are some serious challenges, and many of them seem to be taking quite some time to address. (For the record, Apple did not respond to repeated attempts for comment on this topic.)

"One thing I hear continually is that IT managers want to know more of the roadmap from a company," says Bajarin. "What is coming next that they need to be aware of? Many OEMs like Dell, HP, and Lenovo have enterprise councils which get to see products early and offer feedback along with making their requests for features and functions known.

"Another thing is related to OS control. Apple likes to let the customer decide if they want to install an OS but in enterprise environments they like to test OS releases and make sure everything works and no major security loopholes are found before rolling out to their employees."

Consumer first

Baker says one of the persistent issues with all Apple products is that they tend to be consumer-centric. For example, even the latest iPad Air 2 does not provide features that let multiple users login to the device, separating what could be critical business information for an upper manager from the access a productivity worker has on the same device.

Ironically, it's this lack of business functionality that might be the key reason so many users are drawn to the devices – they are easy to use and don't provide security roadblocks.

"Most users really like the mobile products, both the iPhones and the iPads, and there is a strong following for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro notebooks among users in the enterprise that want to bring their own personal computer, or have the enterprise be more flexible about the PCs that are provided to employees," says Baker, explaining that business users tend to want more flexibility in how they work, where they work, and who has control over their work.

Future outlook?

What we know about Apple is that the company will continue to innovate, attract customers, and show up in conference rooms across the world. Still, there is one key trend that might make things a bit easier for those who have decided to fend off the Apple advocates.

According to recent figures released by Gartner, tablets loaded with Microsoft Windows are starting to nudge into the Apple space after so many years of suffering in obscurity. In Q1 of 2014, Apple enjoyed a 29.7% market share for tablets worldwide. In Q2, that number fell to 27.8% and Microsoft tablets (which includes all form-factors) held fairly steady, still not topping 1%.

Yet, in Q3 of 2014, Apple market share fell to 25% and Microsoft share rose to 1.9%, likely due to the Surface Pro 3 shipments and rising adoption rates in business. The Apple question still looms large in the enterprise – it just isn't looming quite as much as before. By this time next year, who knows if the iPhone will hold out against Samsung and HTC products, or if the MacBook will continue to attract corporate users as much as it currently does.

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