Peter, to pick up Alistairs comment, the reason my employer is trialling Apple Macs is to see if low support requirement is a real or "one of the internet myths".
They rolled out iPads abut 18 months ago and the support load was much, much lower than expected.
The ofered iPhones to replace Blackberries and again support load fell.
The view is they either work or don't work, wheras PCs have 2 states, "working", not "working" and "doing odd things".
We have grown, since PCs appeared in the late 80s, to depend on "support". IS departments, having grown up running main frame and similar computers, all support intensive, were happy that Microsoft based PCs also needed support. It kept them important.
Steve Jobs developed a product that is largely support independant. The IS Support maffia found every reason to advise against it. But the tide is turning: desk/office computers shouldn't need support departments. Most other computerised machines don't need the level of support that PCs do.
If the trial is successful the justification of the high initial cost of the Macs is more than offset by culling about 100 IS support people. Hard, but that is the way of the world.
