IT managers’ thinking is influenced by a myriad of business factors, including research studies advising them not to adopt Apple’s computers. But their attitude is changing as Forrester Research, one of the most outspoken proponents of the Mac-free business environment, now backpedals on their 2008 report which called for a total banishment of Macs in the workplace – even for the most mundane tasks such as handling email.

According to the Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt, a new Forrester survey (available for sale on the corporate card here) of 590 IT managers, Mac users comprise “the 17 percent of information workers who use new technologies and find innovative ways to be more productive and serve customers more effectively”. Wow, talk about change in stance. But wait, there’s more. “Mac users are your HEROes and you should enable them not hinder them”, the report concludes, HEROes being a Forrester acronym for Highly Empowered and Resourceful Operatives.

Just like with iPhone, “Macs are being freewheeled into the office” by corporate higher-ups – typically executives, sales reps and other workaholics – who rely on MacBook Pro machines rather than Windows notebooks which “are slowing them down”:

That, and the looks…

As you could imagine, this is also a question of pride and ego for those well-paid suits who spare no cost shying away from cheapo Windows PCs in favor of Apple’s aluminum-clad machines that look business and ooze class:

Steve Jobs vividly explained his annoyance with corporate IT managers who make purchasing decisions in a fireside chat with the Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg at the D8 conference:

The last line earned Apple’s then CEO a loud belly-rumbling laughter of approval from the audience.

Image credit: Asa Mathat | AllThingsDigital

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