Apple Gunning for Microsoft's Share of the Business World

More and more businesses are adopting Apple products, be it workers bringing their iGear with them to work or IT managers favoring it over Microsoft, a new report from Forrester Research said. Forrester asked nearly 10,000 workers in 17 countries about the subject, and found 21% of information workers use at least one Apple device at work. iPhone was the most popular choice, followed by the iPad and then the Mac. The report further indicated many workplaces issue Macs but don't officially support them.

Data shows that Apple is already present with 41 percent of executives, Forrester wrote in the report. Coupled with Microsoft's absence on mobile devices, this signals that Windows's dominance is at an end.

That means it's not only workers who favor Apple, but the people who run the companies themselves.

Apple's success in serving individuals with personal devices well-suited for the intersection of work and personal lives creates a huge public example of the power of individuals to drive technology change at work, Forrester wrote.

Apple has long been active in courting the consumer, and Microsoft has been the domain of businesspeople for years, but now companies are more accepting than ever of Macs and iPads in the workplace. Furthermore, a company called NPD Group put a similar report out at the end of 2011. It said businesses with between 500 and 1000 workers were looking into buying iPads almost unanimously over other tablets, tech blog Ars Technica reported. Apple devices are more visible in the workplace, no doubt, and the Cupertino, Calif. based tech giant is regularly heard to be trumpeting how popular their products are in Fortune 500 companies. It's a trend worth watching, but Apple won't be taking Microsoft's place in this decade, anyway. As more services shift to the cloud, Apple and Microsoft will continue to battle it out for the businessperson's dollar. Let us know in the comments if your workplace is flexible about using Macs and PCs.