Dive Brief:
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IBM introduced its MobileFirst Managed Mobility Services Wednesday.
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The suite of cloud-based IT services is designed to help companies easily and quickly deploy and manage Apple Macs.
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IBM currently offers about 35 MobileFirst for iOS apps and aims to bump that number up to 100 by the end of 2015.
Dive Insight:
According to IDC research, Mac sales increased 16.1% year-over-year in the quarter ending June 30, while PC sales declined 11.8%.
Experts believe the popularity of Apple devices such as iPhones and iPads has made businesses more open to considering options other than Windows-based PCs in the workplace. IBM sees this trend as an opportunity to help businesses install and manage Macs.
MobileFirst Managed Mobility Services includes OS and image management; automatic compliance and security updates; app installation and update management; and inventory and reporting for hardware and software.
But Apple still has a long way to go before it dominates the workplace. Last year, Forrester said Apple desktop computers account for only 2% of the desktop computers used in enterprises, while Apple MacBooks represent 6% of enterprise laptops.
