Why Microsoft will continue to kill Apple in enterprises

By Preston Gralla

Forrester Research analyst Andrew Bartels says that Apple's sales to enterprises will jump 58% in 2012, to $19 billion. He may be right, but in the long run Microsoft will continue to dominate big business well into the foreseeable future.

Computerworld reports that Bartels says that in 2011, Apple sold $12 billion of equipment to enterprises, with half of those sales going to Macs and half to iPads. In 2012 that number will jump to $19 billion, with $10 billion in sales of iPads, and $9 billion in sales of Macs. In 2013, he says, total Apple sales will be $28 billion.

The numbers may sound impressive, but in enterprises, Microsoft still rules. Bartels noted that in 2012, $69 billion of Windows-based hardware will be sold.

In 2012 Apple will make serious inroads into the corporate market. But by 2013 I believe Microsoft will beat back the Apple onslaught. That's because by 2013 Windows 8 will be released, Windows 8 tablets will be widely available, and several generations of Windows-based ultrabooks will have been released, competing with the MacBook Air.

The iPad and MacBook Air are two primary reasons that Apple has been able to make its way into the corporate market. As Bartels says:

"Apple has been in a very good position with the iPad and MacBook Air, and they've given them a lot of advantages, but Microsoft [and OEMs] will come up with alternatives."

Those alternatives will be less expensive than Apple hardware, which means serious savings for companies that buy them in large quantities. And IT staff will be more comfortable supporting them, because their computing infrastructures are primarily Windows-based.

So Apple hardware will likely remain in the mix in enterprises. But by 2013 it will be much harder for Apple to make sales there.