A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown Shanghai September 10, 2013.
A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown Shanghai September 10, 2013. Reuters

IT decision makers and businesses prefer the Apple Inc's Mac OS over Microsoft's Windows. According to a new survey in IT enterprises, almost half of them offer Macs to their employees while majority think Apple is more reliable than Microsoft in computer operating systems.

The results of the survey were released by virtualization maker Parallels which surveyed over 200 IT heads about their perception of Macs in the enterprise. The poll found that 45 per cent of businesses are offering their employees Macs for use at work.

Among those who don't offer Macs in the workplace, 95 per cent of them expressed the interest to do so if they were to access a single management system for Macs and Window PCs. Apple Inc's computers are also favoured over Windows when it comes to reliability and performance.

According to the survey, 77 per cent of IT decision makers think Macs are more reliable than Windows while 65 per cent said Macs are easy to support. IT heads said 65 per cent of Macs can attract employees.

However, 70 per cent of decision makers who do not offer Macs feel they don't have the technical expertise to support Apple devices. They also said they don't allow Macs for work since they don't can't run Windows applications.

Apple Inc has gradually gained a bigger market share in the enterprise as reports indicate 11 per cent of the total global business market will belong to the Mac and iPhone maker by 2015. Analysts believe the Macs' strong performance in enterprise is driven by the iPhone's "halo effect" as companies and their employees start to go deeper in Apple Inc's ecosystem.

With speculations of the Apple's next generation iPhone continuing to attract the interest of consumers and investors alike, Apple Inc is poised for long-term growth. Analysts believe the $635 price target for Apple shares rely on the sales performance of the presumably more expensive iPhone 6. Many have predicted that it will grab 10 per cent of the giant market for smartphones larger than 4-inches which may result in a $4 increase in earnings per share. Analysts also noted it will boost Apple's earnings per share by 9 percent with a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.3. Apple shares gained following talks with Comcast.