Apple (AAPL) has seen better days. The company recently cut its revenue outlook for the first time in nearly 20 years, and its recent stock plunge erased about $19.2 billion in Berkshire Hathaway’s investment portfolio value since Sept. 30.
On Monday, Wedbush analysts said Apple is facing a “code red” situation in China. Analysts Daniel Ives and Strecker Backe blame Apple’s “pricing hubris” on the iPhone XR for causing the company’s slashed forecast. They suggest Apple should increase its approximately $1 billion to $1.5 billion investment in original content and consider acquiring entertainment companies such as A24, Lionsgate, or Sony Pictures as the most strategic path for long-term growth.
A bright spot amid the doom and gloom is corporate America’s plans to increase spending on Apple’s products over the next 12 months – which is good news for Apple, as iPhone sales represent about two-thirds of its revenue.
Apple dominates enterprise mobile
Piper Jaffray recently did a survey of 110 chief information officers across 10 different industries and found that Apple is gaining market share, as iOS is the preferred operating system for mobile in business.
“iOS (Apple) maintained its significant share lead of mobile platforms supported with 50%, compared with closest competitor Android at 29%, down 5 [percentage points],” Piper Jaffray analysts wrote.
Windows came in third place at 19%, with Blackberry trailing behind at 1%.
Employers prefer to give workers Apple devices
More than half of survey respondents – 54% – said their company distributes iOS devices to their employees, up from 49% in Piper Jaffray’s last survey, and significantly ahead of the 28% that supply Android devices.
Windows gained share, with 14% of respondents saying they supply their employees with Windows devices compared to 10% last year. Just 1% gave their workers Blackberry devices.
iPhone is primary BYOD choice for work
Many employers have a bring your own device policy (BYOD) that allows workers to use their own personal devices for work purposes.
CIOs from the investor call Piper Jaffray recently hosted indicated that employees prefer Apple products.
“Apple’s iPhone is the primary BYOD choice for their workforce. One of the CIOs pointed to an ongoing uptick in spending on tablets for both field and corporate employees, for which they have standardized on iPad. While AAPL has dealt with recent weakness, primarily for iPhone in China & other emerging markets, we are seeing positive trends for the company at the enterprise level,” the analysts wrote.
More investment in Apple products
CIOs plan to increase their investment in Apple products over the next year, according to the survey: 54% of respondents will spend more on Apple’s iOS, up from 48% in 2018.
That 54% is way ahead of Android, the next closest competitor, at 22% – 5 percentage points lower than last year’s survey. Windows gained share to 20% from 19% in 2018, Piper Jaffray analysts wrote.
It’s good news for Apple, since 64% of the surveyed CIOs indicate their budgets will increase, a 2.1% increase from last year.
Follow Sibile Marcellus at @SibileTV
More from Sibile:
The 15 most promising jobs, according to LinkedIn
Slok: Economists misunderstood the surprising labor market
Domino’s and Chipotle among BTIG analysts’ top picks