America’s digital transformation to become a remote first economy continues to accelerate and this is driving rapid adoption of Apple technologies, MDM vendor Addigy has confirmed.
‘Record breaking demand’
Demand for mobile device management solution in the Apple space is surging, the company said, as the pandemic drives forward the transition even as an increasing number of enterprises move to adopt Macs, iPhones and iPads in their business.
A recent Wipro study indicated 59% of employees would choose a Mac if given a choice, though only 32% are already using one.
This is reflected in results:
Addigy just generated its biggest Q3 ever, which the company says is due to the adoption of Apple MDM to support the surge in remote workers.
The news very much reflects events at larger MDM vendor, Jamf, which recently went public with an IPO that exceeded expectations.
What they said
Addigy CEO, Jason Dettbarn explained:
“With COVID-19 we’ve seen more companies make the move to fully remote work.”
The company’s tools make it possible to manage even internationally distributed workforces.
MDM vendors aren’t alone in benefitting from booming Apple sales. Apple managed services provider, Interlaced, makes use of Addigy solutions in support of its services.
These cloud-based solutions offer a range of tools to support remote teams. Admins can use these to manage and install software, set permissions, install security updates, run scripts, manage users and troubleshoot.
(The Live Desktop feature is particularly useful for the latter).
What’s happening?
Over half of all U.S. workers were working remotely in April according to Gallup. These WFH employees appear to be showing productivity gains in some industries, as the Marchetti Constant (that the average worker commutes for an hour a day and have done since Neolithic times) sees an extra hour transmuting into additional personal and work time. A Harvard study suggests employers are getting around 48-minutes of extra work per employee per day.
The productivity is only effectively realized when employees are provided with the right tools for the job. For many, this means Macs, iPads and iPhones; though even those tools are inadequate in the absence of a robust broadband connection.
During the pandemic, many employers have begun to recognize the need to provide employee wellness programs, as isolation, sickness, bereavement and a range of other mental and physical health conditions afflict employees.
This has generated some really imaginative responses – some employers are lending furniture and equipment usually in place in their offices to employees on long-term loans; others are providing financial support for broadband costs, and there’s a trend to provide access to digital wellness schemes, such as those offered in Singapore by new Apple partner, LumiHealth.
What does this mean for Apple?
For Apple, the digital transformation across most industries is a viable proof point for its decades of work in mobility.
Company executives have at times explained that pretty much the entirety of the product range can be displayed on a single table – and yet these tools have helped keep at least part of the global economy active, even while some sectors, retail, services, transport, leisure and hospitality have been shaken to their core.
This is reflected in hardware sales. While Apple’s Mac market share remained static, Mac sales grew 13.2%, according to Canalys, driven by notebook sales. The same analysts recently claimed Apple set a new quarterly record for U.S. iPhone sales in Q2, while anecdotal reports tell us the all-new iPhone 12 range is seeing phenomenal response.
The evidence base that seems to be emerging suggests not only that Apple has already become an integral component of enterprise IT, but that – as the existence of multiple MDM providers helps demonstrate – serving the diverse need of increasingly remote groups in the enterprise space has now become the new North Star for enterprise IT.
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