Apple makes its M1 Mac case to enterprises

Apple is making its M1 Mac pitch to enterprises, with a commissioned Forrester report looking at the economic impact of the Mac and more cost savings over three years.

The new findings from Forrester, which was published Monday, found that organizations can realize a $843 cost savings per Mac over its lifetime with the M1 chip. In a 2019 study by Forrester, the savings over three years per Mac were $678. Commissioned studies should be taken with a grain of salt and the main takeaway is Apple plans to ride its consumer M1 Mac success into the enterprise. 

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To go with that updated Forrester Mac in the enterprise report, Apple also published new performance benchmarks for tasks used in the enterprise. Apple said M1 Macs have twice the Excel performance over comparable PCs, twice the browser graphics performance, a 50% boost to web app performance and twice the battery life on Zoom.

Key claims from Forrester's report include:

• Enterprises can save $12.4 million in IT support costs over three years.
• Data breaches are reduced 50% per deployed Mac.
• Reduced costs compared to PC deployments saves $37.5 million over three years.
• A 5% productivity boost for all employees.

Forrester didn't quantify benefits such as iOS and iPadOS applications compatibility. Forrester's report was based on interviews across multiple industries and deployments ranging from 1,450 employees to more than 100,000. Deployment sizes ranged from 500 Macs to 30,000. Forrester also created a composite organization with the following characteristics:

During the first three years, the composite organization deploys Macs to 33,000 employees (roughly one-third of its total employees) as 10,000 employees select Mac in Year 1, 11,000 select Mac in Year 2, and 12,000 select Mac in Year 3. The organization deploys Mac devices to new hires or as part of employees' standard device refresh cycles. These devices are financed through Apple Finance on a three-year lease. Employees have a range of device options to select from based on their roles and specific functions. Options include both PC and Mac devices in a predetermined performance tier, baseline devices (with starting prices of $1,000), mid-range devices (with starting prices of $1,600), and high-end devices (with starting prices of $2,400. Decision-makers consider the MacBook Air with M1 to be more suitable as a baseline device for a wide range of employees than devices typical of the baseline category due to its power efficiency and performance.

The report is worth a read and rest assured the PC industry will have some issues. Google with Chromebooks may also poke a few holes in it. However, none of that matters per se because the biggest takeaway is that Apple is looking to extend its enterprise gains with the M1 Mac.

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