How Tim Cook created a $25 billion beast of a business in 2015 in a market where Apple used to struggle
Getty Images, Justin Sullivan
Historically, Apple products have been the black sheep of the corporate-employee world, hidden behind Microsoft's powerful shadow.
Then employees started bringing their iPhones and iPads to work.
Still, it wasn't until mid 2014 — when Tim Cook cuddled up to IBM to announce a new partnership to focus on selling more iOS devices to businesses — that Apple woke up and smelled a big new market.
And it was in 2015 that the partnership, and Apple's bigger efforts, really flowered.
For instance, earlier this week, IBM announced the duo has now created 100 iOS apps for all sorts of business needs.
And that was just one of the many breakout moments Apple had in the enterprise market in 2015. From the looks of it, 2016 could be even better.
Apple's sales to enterprise markets "accounted for about $25 billion in annual Apple revenue in the last 12 months, up 40% over the prior year," Tim Cook said in October. And he thinks its enterprise sales will grow a lot in the future.
Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the Apple Watch, which he is wearing on his wrist, on Tuesday, September 9, 2014, in Cupertino, California.
Source: Tim Cook quarterly analysts call.
That $25 billion makes Apple one of the 15 largest enterprise-tech firms, ZDNet's Robin Harris calculates.
Source: ZDNet.
"To put that $25 billion in perspective, that is larger than the sales of EMC," Harris writes. Dell is trying to buy ECM for $65 billion and EMC earned $24.4 billion in 2014.
EMC CEO Joe Tucci, left, shakes hands with Dell CEO and founder Michael Dell.
Source: Google Finance.
A company named Jamf, which makes its living selling software to help IT departments support fleets of Macs and iOS devices, compiled a list of stats on Apple's 2015 growth, too.
Stats are based on a survey of 500 IT pros, nearly all of them (over 90%) supporting both Macs and Windows PCs for employees.
Source: Jamf
Enterprise usage of Macs grew 68%, usage of iPhones grew 46%, and iPads grew 36% at 500 companies Jamf surveyed.
Source: Jamf.
More and more employees are asking for a Mac instead of a Windows PC. Two-thirds of IT pros thought that Macs will cut into Windows' market share at their companies in the next three years, Jamf found.
Source: Jamf.
The No. 1 reason why enterprises buy their employees Macs and iPhones (or let them bring their own to the office) is because users are asking for them.
Source: Jamf.
Seventy-five percent of IT pros Jamf surveyed say Macs are more secure than other PCs; 64% say Macs are easier to manage.
Canadian Jastin Leung, 28, who came to Japan for a vacation and works as a financial planner in Hong Kong, holds some of his Apple iPhone 6 near the Apple Store at Tokyo's Omotesando shopping district, September 19, 2014.
Source: Jamf.
For instance, as part of its partnership with Apple, in 2015, IBM started buying Macs for its employees. IBM agreed to buy 50,000 MacBooks by the end of 2015.
As of October, IBM had issued 30,000 MacBooks to employees, and was adding 1,900 new MacBooks every week.
IBM is saving $270 for every Mac it uses instead of a Windows PC, says Apple CFO Luca Maestri.
A cashier counts US dollars next to five new Apple iPhone 5S phones at the Apple store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York, September 20, 2013.
IBM is saving money on IT support costs, it says. Only 5% of employees using MacBooks called the IT help desk, versus 40% of PC users, IBM VP Fletcher Previn said.
Source: Jamf.
The IT pros Jamf surveyed also say that iOS devices are more secure (82%) easier to manage (78%) compared to other mobile devices.
Source: Jamf.
United Airlines is another case in point. It bought 23,000 iPhone 6 Plus devices in December 2014, for flight attendants and another 6,000 of them in December 2015, for its customer-service reps. United previously bought 11,000 iPads for pilots.
Apple has even bigger plans to infiltrate the workplace. For instance, in August it announced a huge new partnership with computer-network giant Cisco. The two companies will make Apple iOS devices work well on Cisco enterprise networks.
Apple CEO Tim Cook with Cisco executive chairman John Chambers.
But there's more. Cisco will also be selling iOS devices to its huge roster of enterprise customers, just as IBM is selling it to its customers. Both Cisco and IBM have huge enterprise sales forces. Apple doesn't, so it picked partners to help it there, Cook said in October.
People walk past sign at the booth of IBM at the CeBIT trade fair.
Source: Tim Cook quarterly analysts call.
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