Apple Mac and the risks of closed computer designs

"Should I buy a Mac?" This is one question clients regularly ask us. With the beginning of a new year many business owners are looking to upgrade their computers, so it's a good time to share our advice and perspectives on the issue.

The target audience of this blog post is small and medium-sized business (SMB) owners, not folks using a computer for casual home use. SMBs often have limited budgets to spend on computer hardware and IT technicians when faults occur—which adds a critical aspect to this topic. Although we're focusing on Apple Mac, computer models from other popular vendors may feature problematic design decisions similar to those highlighted below, and will therefore carry the same risks.

The pros of Apple Macs are well known. Highly-attractive industrial design, a wide range of software, and a robust operating system (albeit one that cannot be freely downloaded and installed). However, for businesses with limited budgets and the need to maintain resilience when things go wrong, the primary cons of Apple hardware are twofold: closed hardware designs, and the lack of business-grade warranties.

By closed hardware designs, we're referring to Apple sealing off parts of the computer that would otherwise be easily accessible. Batteries, memory, and solid state/hard drive storage devices are components that ideally are easily replaceable by customers and support technicians. However, if for example your Apple laptop battery fails when you most need to work, there is no immediate swapping in a spare—as access to the computer is sealed off. What should be an elementary procedure instead requires physically visiting an Apple-authorized service centre and potentially many days of downtime. Similarly, memory is a non-upgradeable part in most Apple computers, which removes the customer's freedom to perform an upgrade after purchase. If a customer after a few months realises that their new Apple laptop needs more memory, this is impossible. Additional cost comes from being unable to freely pick and choose third-party components that are commonly available at much lower prices than Apple-branded parts.

Take a look at the underside of Dell's Latitude 3000 business laptop. You'll see a customer-replaceable battery that can be swapped easily, and convenient access panels for upgrading memory and storage using standard parts available from your local computer store:

The problems created by removing customer access to components are compounded by Apple's poor warranty offerings. As a general rule of thumb, a new business computer purchase should include an extended warranty, so that when computer faults do occur the customer experiences the least amount of downtime during repairs. Taking Dell as an example, their business range of laptops often ship with a three-year warranty that includes on-site repairs. For an additional fee, the warranty can be upgraded to a "pro" variant, which includes an on-site four-hour turnaround on repairs, and 24/7 support all year around—perfect for customers where every minute of computer downtime translates into cost. Compare this to Apple's warranty, which is strictly "return to base"—which means the customer has to ship it to a service centre themselves. In addition, parts are often subject to overseas availability and may need to be flown in by the vendor. On-site and same-day warranties are not even available as a paid option. And, because all the parts are sealed off, easy troubleshooting and replacement for something as simple as a defective battery or memory is impractical. A fault with an Apple laptop often turns into a protracted outage lasting many days.

In summary, SMB computing needs are best served by hardware featuring easy-to-replace parts using widely-available components. Combining standardised computer hardware with a beautiful, stable business OS such as Ubuntu truly gives you the best of both worlds. Unlike Apple macOS, Ubuntu can be freely installed even on older computers; provided that robust backup procedures are in place and the use case is not business-critical, this is a perfect way for businesses to maximize their existing IT hardware.