While Dell might have been expected to win the desktop section (for the fourth time in a row) and the laptop category (for the second year in succession), Apple was an unexpected runner-up in both categories suggesting US small companies are becoming more open to the Mac proposition.
The Dell OptPlex 745 got 45 per cent of votes in the desktop section but the iMac beat off HP and Lenovo with 25 per cent of the votes. In the laptop category, Dell’s Latitude D820 won 46 per cent of the votes and Apple’s MacBook was a strong second with 32 per cent.
Among other things, the wide-ranging survey by Small Business Computing covered printers, mobile devices, storage, software and services and security.
There were big changes in storage, with large numbers voting for offerings from traditionally enterprise-focused vendors, suggesting storing data is becoming an increasingly important issue for many small companies. The NetApp StoreVault S500 gained 45 per cent of votes and EMC’s CLARiiON AX150i came second.
Unsurprisingly, HP came top in all the printer categories: black and white, colour and multifunction. Xerox was a strong second in the colour and multifunction categories.
In the server category, HP and IBM were first and second, separated by a single percentage point. The Blackberry Pearl 8100 was the top mobile device and the 700wx Treo Palm was runner-up.
The honours for desktop security went to Symantec’s Norton Internet Security 2007 and McAfee’s Internet Security Suite 2007. On the network security side, small businesses opted for software products rather than hardware-based ones. McAfee Total Protection for Small Business came top and Trend Micro Client Server Security for SMB 3.0 was second.
Symantec was placed first for desktop data backup and recovery with Backup Exec System Recrovery Desktop Edition 6.5 while EVault Small Business Edition topped the network section.
Seagate’s Mirra Sync and Share Personal Server, a 320Gb external storage device that connects to the network via 100Mbps ethernet but can also be remotely accessed over the Web, was second.
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 was the winner in the productivity software category and Adobe Photoshop Elements topped the graphics and multimedia section.
Demonstrating the growing acceptance of Web-based applications among the small business community, Salesforce.com topped the sales and customer management category, closely followed by Sage’s ACT!
Citrix’ ondemand colloboration tool, GoToWebinar, won the collaboration software vote, ahead of Central Desktop, a Web-based wiki-enabled collaboration system aimed at SMEs that integrates real-time web and audio conferencing tools.
Unsurprisingly, Skype for Business was the overwhelming winner in the VoIP category.
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