While MacBooks and iMacs have experienced drastic growth in the consumer market, their implementation in enterprises has yet to catch up. Most analysts believe that Microsoft will continue to dominate the market, however Roger Ehrenberg points out the many mistakes analysts have made in the past. His article criticizes Wall Street for not foreseeing the downfall of dominant companies. For example analysts used to believe GM, Kodak, and IBM were infallible, however over the past decade all three companies have weakened significantly. Ehrenberg believes Wall Street is making this same mistake with Microsoft, believing that Windows will remain the dominant workplace operating system. Ehrenberg believes that Macs are growing in both the consumer and enterprise market, and thus can eventually overtake Windows in both markets. Despite the debate, it’s worthwhile to note that Macs are experiencing much higher growth in the consumer market than in the enterprise world. As discussed in class, when viewing Macs a better technology dependent on the number of users, the cluster structure of the business world must be hindering Mac diffusion (since clusters are the only obstacles to diffusion cascades). A closer analysis and comparison of the consumer and enterprise markets reveal how network effects play a key role in the diffusion of Macs as a superior technology.

Clusters exist in both the consumer and enterprise markets, however enterprise clusters are much more dense and thus are more resistant to switching to Mac technology. We can imagine a perfect enterprise cluster where each computer is connected to every other one within the company, yielding a density of 1. The idea is that every work computer must be able to communicate with any other given computer in the same enterprise (through email, video chat, or whatever…). A consumer however may be tied to other friends or family members, but there is no definite cluster with a high density; any individual is part of many clusters with varying densities. Hypothetically, if Macs and Windows were completely incompatible, then this cluster analysis alone would explain the discrepancy: for any value of q, it is easier for consumers to switch given their lower cluster densities. However, Macs have become more compatible with PCs and as a result have lowered q. The result is more consumers purchasing Macs because a lower value of q means that it takes less of one’s surrounding computers to convince a consumer to switch. However, it is interesting that given this model, a decreased q need not impact the enterprise market if q is too high to allow Macs to break into any given cluster.

This Article mentions how Apple’s consumer products are already enterprise worthy, outlining the link between consumer and worker diffusion. The consumer and enterprise networks mentioned above overlap: all nodes in the work force are also consumers, who also use computers at home. Macs are growing more popular at home due to Intel chips, better virtualization and compatibility with Windows, and lower price points. As a result, IT Managers and CEOs are realizing the value of Macs in the workplace. The cascading of Macs in the consumer market causes initial users to emerge independently in enterprises, bringing their emerging love for Macs into individual clusters/corporations in the enterprise world. For instance each company may have 5-10 employees who recently switched to Macs because of the consumer network, and then petition their bosses to use Macs instead. In this way the enterprise switch to Macs will not occur as a cascade in the enterprise network, but rather as a displacement from the consumer network. The diffusion in the enterprise network will occur as many parallel diffusions stemming in each company as a result of a few initial users (from the consumer market).

Macs are designed to please the user and provide an outstanding computing experience regardless if one is at home or at work. As a result more and more people are adapting to Macs, and wanting to bring this technology from the home world into the work world. So as Macs become more and more popular amongst consumers, we can expect consumer preferences to be mirrored in the enterprise market. Despite Wall Street’s analysis of corporations’ IT structures and past histories, no amount of prediction and calculation can account for people’s sheer love and enthusiasm of the Mac.