Macs Cost Less to Manage Than PCs

According to a survey released today by the Enterprise Desktop Alliance, Macs in the enterprise are a lot cheaper to manage.

InfoWorld reports that the group surveyed 260 IT administrators in large U.S. companies with both Macs and PCs who are involved in some degree with IT cost calculations. Enterprise Desktop Alliance members include Centrify, Absolute Software, Group Logic, Web Help Desk, and most recently IBM.

The survey found that Macs were cheaper in six of seven computer management categories: troubleshooting, help desk calls, system configuration, user training and supporting infrastructure (servers, networks and printer). Nearly half of the respondents cited software licensing fees as roughly the same for both platforms.


- 65% of respondents said it costs less to troubleshoot Macs than PCs
- 19% said they spent the same on both computers
- 16% said they spent less to manage PCs than Macs

A majority of those respondents who said it costs less to troubleshoot Macs than PCs estimated over 20 % in cost savings.

Addressing the 16 percent who said they spent less troubleshooting PCs, Tom Cromlin from Enterprise Desktop Alliance says, "It might be an [issue] of expertise of the IT staff, they're probably more comfortable troubleshooting PCs."

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