The Total Economic Impact™ Of Apple Mac For Business

Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By Mac Devices

A Forrester Total Economic Impact Study Commissioned By Apple, April 2024

More often than ever before, today’s organizations are prioritizing the improvement of their digital employee experiences (DEX) and end-user experiences. 1 A strong DEX contributes to business outcomes such as employee retention, security, and customer satisfaction. 2 By investing in Mac devices for business, whether as a standard offering or as part of a choose-your-own-device (CYOD) program, an organization can improve its DEX while decreasing its total employee device costs and improving its security posture, IT efficiency, and employee productivity.

Apple commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Mac devices.3 The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Mac devices on their organizations.

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Return on investment (ROI)

186%186%

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Net present value (NPV)

$49.4M$49.4M

To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed 11 decision-makers from nine organizations and surveyed 242 hardware decision-makers and 53 end users with experience using Mac devices for business at their organizations. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the experiences of the interviewees and survey respondents and combined the results into a single composite organization that is a global enterprise organization with more than 50,000 employees.

has about 0 employees and generates $0 in annual revenue. Custom results are based on user inputs and the TEI case study.

Interviewees said that prior to using Mac devices, their organizations struggled with inefficient device provisioning, suboptimal security posturing, and poor device user experiences. Multiple interviewees said small groups of employees at their organizations used Mac devices for work outside of the company’s fully managed IT infrastructure. They said these employees were attracted to the performance of the devices and that they were often previously familiar with the Mac operating system (OS). As the number of employees who wanted to use Mac devices grew, the organizations struggled with a lack of visibility into these unmanaged devices. Attracted to the improved performance and cost of the MacBook Air with Apple silicon, the organizations decided to officially offer Mac devices to employees to bring the Mac devices under management, standardize to a single device type, simplify device security, and/or improve their DEX.

Interviewees said that after their organizations invested in a device choice program that offered Mac devices, a considerable number of employees chose Mac devices. They explained that as a result, their organizations became more secure, and their IT teams became more efficient. At the same time, employees who switched to using Mac devices benefitted from increased performance, improved battery life, and more reliability. Interviewees said the benefits of Mac devices compounded with the number of Macs deployed.

Key Findings

Quantified benefits . Five-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organization include:

  • Reduced device support and management costs by almost one-third. It’s more efficient for the composite organization to provision and update Mac devices over other devices because Mac devices are cheaper to maintain and manage and experience fewer security incidents. With 60% fewer tickets filed per device per year and tickets that are cheaper to resolve, the composite spends less on support tickets per device with Macs. In addition, its IT employees spend less time on device management, and they manage twice as many devices per employee. With a cumulative 13,125 Mac devices deployed, the composite organization saves $7.3 million in support and management costs over five years.

For , this benefit might be worth over five years.

  • Reduced and avoided hardware, software, and energy costs worth $21.2 million. By purchasing Mac devices, the composite avoids the cost of PC devices it would have provided to employees along with the cost of all associated device software. Mac devices do not require the additional purchase of an OS license, and interviewees said they require fewer security applications to achieve higher levels of security. According to the interviewees and Forrester research, Macs consume 56% less energy than PCs.

For , this benefit might be worth over five years.

  • Reduced risk of a data breach by up to 90%. Apple’s fundamental device architecture, automatic encryption, operating system design and automatic updates, and facilitation of threat detection improves the overall security of Mac devices, which helps the composite reduce its vulnerability to some types of data breaches. Usage of a Mac rather than a PC decreases the composite’s level of risk exposure from a breach due to an external attack or internal incident by 15%, and it decreases its risk of exposure from a breach due to a lost or stolen asset by 90%. Over five years, the reduced risk of a data breach is worth $530,000 to the composite organization.

For , this benefit might be worth over five years.

  • A 3.5% increase in employee productivity due to device performance and reliability. Employees at the composite organization who choose Mac devices spend 45 fewer minutes per month waiting for their devices to start up or update and 55 fewer minutes per month on issue investigation and waiting for resolution. In addition, faster device-processing speeds, better application reliability and performance, a more intuitive user experience, and a longer battery life all contribute to improving overall employee engagement and productivity. Over five years, this improvement in employee productivity and saved end-user time is worth $46.4 million to the composite organization.

For , this benefit might be worth over five years.

  • Three times the device residual value after four years of use. The composite organization purchases its laptops outright and, after four years, it retires them to an asset recovery program that allows it to recover the residual value of each device. According to the interviewees and Forrester research, the average cost of an enterprise PC is $1,100, and it maintains a 15% residual value after four years. The cost of an enterprise MacBook Air is $1,299, and it maintains a 30% residual value after four years. In Year 5, when the composite retires 3,750 Mac devices, this increase in residual value is worth $498,000 to the composite organization.

For refreshing about 0% of devices per year, this benefit might be worth .

“Support costs, operational costs, and longevity of [Mac devices] compared to [PC] devices are far greater. And when it comes to ease of use, it’s a more flexible and secure platform than, say, our [PC] platform is today.”

Director of mobile product and innovation, financial services

“The benefits you’re getting in terms of longevity and these [DEX] scores, like the [user] satisfaction, the battery life, zero-touch deployment, [and] all those things make [Mac devices] stand out.”

Principal product manager, food and beverage

Unquantified benefits. Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:  

  • Extended device lifetime. The composite organization may get a longer usable lifespan from its Mac devices before retiring them due to build quality and durability and a slower degree of performance degradation. Survey respondents reported that their organization extended its device lifetime with Mac devices by more than 13 months over previously used devices.
  • Improved brand reputation and employee acquisition. In addition to enhancing employee productivity and engagement, offering Mac devices to employees can positively contribute to the composite organization’s brand reputation, talent acquisition, and retention rates.
  • Synergies with other Apple products. If the composite organization uses other Apple products in addition to Mac devices, Apple’s device connectivity can enable a seamless transition between other devices (e.g., iPhones, iPads) to further increase employee productivity.
  • Reduced emissions from lower energy usage. With environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals becoming more common and the SEC setting a future mandate for climate-related investor disclosures, corporate tracking of energy usage and carbon footprints will accelerate in importance. According to the interviewees and Forrester research, Mac devices consume less than half the electricity of equivalent PC devices, and they generally contribute less carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Extrapolated to thousands of devices at the composite organization, these savings would signify a notable ESG improvement.

Costs. Five-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organization include:

  • Implementation and management labor costs of $1.1 million. The composite organization dedicates four FTE resources to implementation over about six months. They set up the organization’s device provisioning and infrastructure, site-to-site authentication, and user access, and they train frontline support teams on Mac device management. Ongoing labor, including managing the organization’s MDM solution, overseeing the Apple relationship, managing the employee device choice program and inventory, coordinating and testing device updates, managing device residual value programs, and decision-making on an ongoing basis consumes 1.5 FTE resources in Year 1 and two FTE resources from Year 2 onwards.

For , these costs could represent over five years.

  • Hardware and software costs for 13,125 employees, amounting to $25.5 million. With investment in a Mac choice program, the composite organization incurs the costs of the devices, AppleCare, an MDM solution, and the security software installed on the devices. The organization pays $1,299 for each Mac and $105 for AppleCare Enterprise up front at the time of device deployment, as well as $10 per month per user for a third-party MDM solution and $8 per month per user for a security application installed on all devices.

For with a total of 0 MacBook devices deployed, these costs could represent over five years.

The financial analysis which is based on the decision-maker interviews and survey found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $76.0 million over five years versus costs of $26.6 million, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $49.4 million and an ROI of 186%.

might experience benefits of over five years versus costs of , adding up to an NPV of and an ROI of 0%.

TCO savings per Mac deployed over five years

$547

“Macs have proven to be more cost-effective from a management and support [perspective], for user experience, and [with] a longer life cycle.”

Lead systems analyst, food and beverage

Key Statistics

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    Return on investment (ROI)

    186%186%
  • icon icon

    Benefits PV

    $76.0M$76.0M
  • icon icon

    Net present value (NPV)

    $49.4M$49.4M
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    Payback

    <6 months <6 months
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Benefits (Five-Year)

Reduced support and management costs Reduced and avoided hardware, software, and energy costs Cost savings from reduced risk of a data breach Imrpoved employee productivity Recovered device residual value

TEI Framework And Methodology

From the information provided in the interviews and survey, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for those organizations considering an investment in Mac devices.

The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that Mac devices can have on an organization.

  1. Due Diligence

    Interviewed Apple stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to Mac devices.

  2. Interviews And Survey

    Interviewed 11 decision-makers from nine organizations and surveyed 242 hardware decision-makers and 53 end users of Mac for business at organizations using Mac devices to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks.

  3. Composite Organization

    Designed a composite organization based on characteristics of the interviewees’ organizations.

  4. Financial Model Framework

    Constructed a financial model representative of the interviews and survey results using the TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues and concerns of the interviewees.

  5. Case Study

    Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling the investment impact: benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks. Given the increasing sophistication of ROI analyses related to IT investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology provides a complete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions. Please see Appendix A for additional information on the TEI methodology.

Disclosures

Readers should be aware of the following:

This study is commissioned by Apple and delivered by Forrester Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis.

Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other organizations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own estimates within the framework provided in the study to determine the appropriateness of an investment in Mac devices. For the interactive functionality using Configure Data/Custom Data, the intent is for the questions to solicit inputs specific to a prospect's business. Forrester believes that this analysis is representative of what companies may achieve with Mac devices based on the inputs provided and any assumptions made. Forrester does not endorse Apple or its offerings. Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy and completeness of this model, Apple and Forrester Research are unable to accept any legal responsibility for any actions taken on the basis of the information contained herein. The interactive tool is provided ‘AS IS,’ and Forrester and Apple make no warranties of any kind.

Apple reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept changes to the study that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure the meaning of the study.

Apple provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.

Forrester fielded the double-blind survey using a third-party survey partner.

Consulting Team:

Emma Conroy

Nahida Nisa

Nick Ferrif

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