Apple to double its market share in three years?

By 2011, Apple will double its market share in the US and Europe -- a trend that will also mean an onslaught of Apple devices invading corporate networks, new research predicts.

According to analyst firm Gartner, Apple's rapid growth over recent years will see the company take nine percent of the US and Western European personal computing market within the next three years.

Besides the "coolness of its design", Gartner analysts cite Apple's stronger multi-device offerings and better support as the key factors contributing to the Mac maker's projected growth.

While Microsoft is named as the company most threatened by Apple's increasing market share, Apple's desktop hardware competitors such as Dell and HP will also suffer as a result, the analysts believe.

However, Apple's rapid rise in Western Europe and the US will not be emulated globally: its worldwide share of the desktop market is set to grow to just three percent by 2011, according to Gartner -- an increase of half a percent from 2006.

One area that has to date remained immune to Apple's invasion is the enterprise, due largely to the estimate that 70 percent of a typical business's applications depend on a Windows-operating environment. However, Gartner expects that by 2011 around half of all business applications will be system "agnostic".

But it is Apple's portable devices that IT managers will need to watch out for, with a mushrooming number of requests to connect Apple products to corporate networks on the horizon, as workers begin using the devices as a means to transport their desktop environment from work to home.

By 2012, Gartner estimates that 50 percent of the labour force will choose to leave their laptops at home in favour of carrying smaller devices, such as iPods or USB sticks that can recreate a worker's desktop environment anywhere. These portable devices, which already pose a problem for companies concerned about data leakage, will increasingly cause problems in the enterprise until they can be systematically and centrally secured.

Yet another factor that will see Apple devices making a mark in the corporate environment is the trend towards employees providing their own portable computers, according to Gartner. Since the popularity of Apple devices, desktops and laptops is being driven by consumers, this too will contribute to greater use of Apple products as business tools, the analysts believe.