iPhone 'Halo' Driving Corporate iPad/Mac Adoption, 25% of Cisco-Owned Laptops Are MacBooks

Apple is seeing increased success in selling its wares to large corporations thanks to the iPhone, reports The Wall Street Journal. A number of Apple products have acted as "halos" over the years, selling to first-time Apple owners and seeing that penetration lead to sales of more products.

The iPod helped drive Mac adoption with consumers, particularly amongst college students, but the iPhone is the most successful product in Apple's history and has driven tremendous amounts of Mac and iPad sales. One-quarter of Cisco's company-provided notebooks are Macs following that company's decision to allow employees to choose which platform they preferred.

Bechtel
Many companies are deploying custom applications for iPhones and iPads, with the iPhone often being Apple's first foothold in a business.

LG&E and KU Energy LLC, Kentucky's biggest electric utility ... approved the iPhone for employees in 2010. It then introduced iPads, and built apps such as one to help its helicopter patrollers survey 5,500 miles of high-voltage power lines. Using an iPad's global-positioning system, patrollers can pinpoint the location of a problem and select from a menu of common issues, such as a damaged pole or an overgrown tree.

"For years, we looked for some way to automate this and we heard all sorts of fairy tales, but we could never find anything," said Robby Trimble, LG&E and KU's manager of transmission-line services.

Now, the utility's engineers who run power plants use iPads to record how much electricity is generated. Warehouse managers use the tablet to scan bar codes and track the utility's tools and materials.

Forrester says Apple accounts for 8 percent of global business and government spending on computers and tablets -- that number does not include the iPhone -- and could rise to 11 percent by 2015.

Apple executives frequently mention enterprise adoption and custom app development in earnings release conference calls with analysts, touting large corporate adoptions of iOS devices and how companies are using internally developed apps. The company also has large websites profiling how businesses are using both the iPhone and iPad.

Popular Stories

iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Here's When to Expect the iOS 26 Public Beta

Tuesday July 15, 2025 11:07 am PDT by
Apple previously announced that a public beta of iOS 26 would be available in July, and now a more specific timeframe has surfaced. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said that Apple's public betas should be released on or around Wednesday, July 23. In other words, expect the public betas of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and more to be available at some point next week. Apple will be releasing...
Apple Watch Ultra 2 Complications

Apple Watch Ultra 3: What to Expect

Sunday July 13, 2025 10:30 am PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 is nearly over, and a handful of new features and changes have been rumored for the device. Below, we recap what to expect from the Apple Watch Ultra 3:Satellite connectivity for sending and receiving text messages when Wi-Fi and cellular coverage is unavailable 5G support, up from LTE on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Likely a wide-angle OLED display that ...
iPhone 17 Colors

All 15 New iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro Colors Revealed in Latest Leak

Wednesday July 16, 2025 6:50 am PDT by
We may finally have a definitive list of all color options for the iPhone 17 series, ahead of the devices launching in September. MacRumors concept In a report for Macworld today, Filipe Espósito said he obtained an "internal document" that allegedly reveals all of the color options for the upcoming iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max models. The report includes ...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 16 New Features

Friday July 11, 2025 12:40 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are only two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:A redesigned Dynamic Island: It has been rumored that all iPhone 17 models will have a redesigned Dynamic Island interface — it might ...
apple tv 4k new orange

New Apple TV Expected Later This Year With These New Features

Saturday July 12, 2025 3:09 pm PDT by
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year, and a handful of new features and changes have been rumored for the device. Below, we recap what to expect from the next Apple TV, according to rumors. Rumors Faster Wi-Fi Support The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports ...
Apple Hornsby

Apple Store Near Sydney Permanently Closing Later This Year

Monday July 14, 2025 6:14 pm PDT by
Apple today said its store at the Westfield Hornsby shopping mall, in Hornsby, Australia, will be permanently closing in October. Apple Hornsby In a statement shared with Australian tech news website EFTM (via Reddit), Apple said that it has decided not to renew its lease at Westfield Hornsby. Apple said all affected retail employees will be given the opportunity to work at Apple's nearby...
iphone 16 pro ghost hand

5 Reasons to Skip This Year's iPhone 17 Pro

Thursday July 10, 2025 4:54 am PDT by
Apple will launch its new iPhone 17 series in two months, and the iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to get a new design for the rear casing and the camera area. But more significant changes to the lineup are not expected until next year, when the iPhone 18 models arrive. If you're thinking of trading in your iPhone for this year's latest, consider the following features rumored to be coming...

Top Rated Comments

AngerDanger Avatar
150 months ago
I can just imagine the two men in that photo playing Angry Birds.

Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jaro65 Avatar
150 months ago
1 company for every 5000 companies have a Mac install-base over 20%. Big deal.

Macs (like most business-class Wintels) are nice computers. Pricier, yes.

I'm not sure what the big advertisement is that Cisco has a 25% Mac user base. So what. I'm sure company X out there has a 25% linux base, too. And Company Y out there has a 25% Pepsi-drinking user base.

Talk to me when Macs hit a 25% install base in EITHER the consumer market or business market for a personal computer (not a tablet or a smartphone). As far as I can tell, for the past 30 years Apple peaked at 15% in either of those 2 markets...and that was in 2011 I believe.
So...how's the weather in Redmond?
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dilbert99 Avatar
150 months ago
When you quote the ENTIRE post that contains multiple points, your single question pretty much becomes invalid. Please don't quote the entire post.

You do realise that MS is in Redmond?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
djgamble Avatar
150 months ago
That's good news... reading these forums recently you'd think everybody viewed Samsung as being the only option for mobile phones.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
psn Avatar
150 months ago
Apple is the worst company to deal with for an enterprise

I'm working as IT for a 20k users company.
service:
- they don't come to you. you have to bring the laptop to them.
- Very often they tell you to wait a week or two till it's fixed.
connectivity:
- NO docking from apple.
- 300$ dockings from elsewhere... and even that requires you to connect more than one cable.
I can go on about working in the enterprise software...
you end up working with Fusion / remote desktop very often.
to make things clear:
I got MBP 13" retina, MBAir 13" and iMac at home.
and i think anybody who considers a MAC in an enterprise is naive ( i had some other words... but let's make it more polite...).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mrhick01 Avatar
150 months ago
1 company for every 5000 companies have a Mac install-base over 20%. Big deal.

Macs (like most business-class Wintels) are nice computers. Pricier, yes.

I'm not sure what the big advertisement is that Cisco has a 25% Mac user base. So what. I'm sure company X out there has a 25% linux base, too. And Company Y out there has a 25% Pepsi-drinking user base.

Talk to me when Macs hit a 25% install base in EITHER the consumer market or business market for a personal computer (not a tablet or a smartphone). As far as I can tell, for the past 30 years Apple peaked at 15% in either of those 2 markets...and that was in 2011 I believe.

And doing such would make them a $400 billion a year company rather than the ~$250 billion a year company that they are now.

How is not achieving this magical 25 percent number a demerit?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)