Apple Leopard OS Should Be Big For Business

Apple's Leopard OS should spur sales of both Apple systems and associated hardware to business users when it finally hits the market, according to distribution executives and VARs who resell Apple products.

The Cupertino, Calif., based vendor's latest operating system upgrade is expected to be released sometime in October, pushed back from a previously announced springtime launch.

But for distributor Tech Data, whenever that launch may happen, sales of both the OS and hardware are expected to spike for its Apple specialized business unit and for associated technologies like storage networks, said Leslie Malone, director of client computing for the Clearwater, Fla.-based broadline distributor. Tech Data launched its Apple business unit in May of last year.

"We're very excited about the release of this operating system now that it's finally going to hit. We've gotten good positive interest from the Apple community. We think that in and of itself at launch time we'll see a pretty significant spike in the sales of the OS, particularly in the box product," she said.

"The area where we think ultimately, and it may not be at launch, the real benefit is going to be is on the server product. Apple is doing a great job extending their reach into the enterprise. When the server version of Leopard is out we think that will further legitimize their ability to support their platform," she said.

Tech Data expects to see good pull-through of technologies like RAID and other storage products when the server operating system is on the market. Apple's last OS, Tiger, was released in 2005.

Malone said that Tech Data has seen an increase in both sales and interest in Apple products from business end-users and the VARs that cater to them, both Apple VARs and mainstream resellers who had not previously sold Apple products but are bringing Apple into the fold.

"We've seen tremendous growth on both sides. We absolutely do see Apple becoming much more accepted as a mainstream platform particularly in the commercial business world," she said.

Products like Parallels desktop software that allows users to run both Microsoft Windows and Apple operating systems simultaneously on Apple machines have made Apple machines more viable for business users with Windows-specific business software that are nevertheless interested in using Apple hardware.

"We definitely see a great success story there for Apple and for us as well. Apple is just firing on all cylinders right now and this is just one more element that is creating a lot of excitement and a lot of buzz in the channel for them. They're almost on a can't-miss roll right now," said Malone.

Distributor Ingram Micro will also be selling Apple's Leopard OS.

For reseller Angela O'Donnell, managing director of W. O'Donnell Consulting in New York City, Apple has been picking up steam in the business market. "I think that there is much more interest in Apple products than there's ever been because of some of the innovations they've released recently. Also it's the availability of Windows compatibility," she said.

She anticipates customer demand increasing with the release of the Leopard OS. In one instance, a 130-person office expressed interest in transitioning its entire staff from PCs to Macs as it was formulating its 2008 budget.

"It's a big step. It's not a normal thing to do, so the interest is definitely there. Almost every single client that we work with has asked us if we should switch all of our machines to Macintosh," she said.

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