Parallels has its sights set on BYOD. It believes that India is an emerging market for Apple products and, thereby, for its Mac solutions. By Heena Jhingan
According to the ITIC 2012 Apple Deployment and Usage Trend survey report, nearly 90% of the Mac users still use Windows applications. Facts like this are the underlying inspiration for Parallels that offers solutions enabling users to run Windows and Mac applications simultaneously, without needing to reboot their machines. The company feels that the need for such integrated platforms is going to increase with BYOD picking up its pace even in India. Globally, Parallels has a significant customer base in the enterprise and education sectors.
Parallels faces stiff competition from VMware Fusion that, like Parallels, supports the installation and use of Windows 7/8 on Macs. VMware Fusion 5 was recently announced. Both VMware and Parallels offer enterprise editions that provide the kind of policy management of Windows VMs that IT department likes to impose on Windows PCs. Analysts feel that, besides offering compelling features, the go to market strategy will be critical for both players in the price-sensitive Indian enterprise. Going forward, virtualization tools like these are definitely going to make their presence felt in the Indian enterprise.
Stefan L Prestele, Senior Director, Global Consumer, SMB & Field Marketing, Parallels Inc, said that Apple was quickly getting into the Indian enterprise as a result of BYOD. Having said that, Mac users in corporate India would have to run Windows applications without compromising on performance for which some sort of desktop virtualization solution would become a necessity.
Prestele added that there could be employees who would need to run productivity tools like Outlook on their Mac or access Windows-centric SAP systems. Parallels Enterprise Edition allows companies to not only to run Windows on the Mac, it also makes it easy to deploy. An enterprise can deploy the solution for 50 or 100 Mac devices and centrally manage those including pushing updates.
Enterprise ready
The latest release of Parallels’ software is a mature product that is powered by the enhanced feature set of Mac OS X Mountain Lion’s Dictation feature in the Windows app, organizing Windows full screen or the Metro Style applications in Launchpad as well as supporting Retina display resolution in Windows applications running on a Mac. The company is talking up the Windows 8 integration of Parallels Desktop 8.
The new offering is said to be a good fit for Indian small businesses with 5-10 employees or those that might not be keen on investing in high-end Apple devices. According to Prestele, Parallels Desktop 8 can scale full screen Windows apps to run on entry-level Macs.
Parallels has the Desktop 8 for Mac Business Pack that includes five licenses at a discounted price for small businesses.
Integration between Safari and Internet Explorer is another feature that it believes will be compelling. There are sites that would not work well in Safari. This feature, it claims, enables seamless browsing.
Parallels had released a mobile app some years back. This app allows users to remotely access their Mac from an iPad or iPhone. The enterprise edition is a dedicated product that solves issues like deployment, unified key and upgrade management.
Mac uptake in India
India is still an emerging market as far as Mac penetration is concerned. Parallels typically operates in markets where Apple has a 9-10 % market share such as the US. Apple hardware is expensive. Despite that, the company said that it had seen the company’s market share go up in emerging markets including China and Korea. Even in India, though the penetration of Macs and iPads or iPhones is much lower than in the US or Germany, Parallels sees Apple growing 30-40% year on year.
Parallels expects the India market to be big. Beginning with 60 partners at present, the company will be on the lookout to acquire more partners. Packaged software is also available at apple resellers like Reliance, iWorld, 4 Genius Minds, Unicorn
Infosolutions and RSG Solutions.
The vendor works with JAMF, a company that has a suite called Casper. The Casper Suite can be used to automate distribution, installation, and configuration of Parallels to new or existing Macs across multiple locations in an organization. Alternatively, it can be used as a long-term management tool to assist in ongoing updates and maintenance.
“We are getting into partnerships with companies in the mobility space in order to have companies refine our products to meet the BYOD requirements of enterprises. The enterprise edition is a dedicated product that solves issues like deployment, unified key and upgrade management,” he said.
Parallels comes in to play in scenarios wherein users or companies migrating to an Apple platform want to protect their existing investment into previously purchased Windows applications.
Migration to the Mac is not simply about cost; it’s also about adaptability. Parallels boasts of its strength of switching tools that automatically move programs, files and browser favorites from IE to Safari. Prestele concluded, “Some might argue that Apple has a migration system to move from a PC on to a Mac. However, what they are not doing is that they do not bring applications over. They simply move your mail store from Outlook to Mail. If you are used to working with folders in Outlook, your experience might be bumpy. With our solution, you could continue to use what you have invested in and are used to working with and stay productive.”
