Apple may be at 'inflection point' for higher enterprise adoption: Wells Fargo
yalcinsonat1/iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) generates the vast majority of its revenue from consumers, but Wells Fargo believes the tech giant is at a "point of inflection" in the enterprise, which could boost revenues.
Analyst Aaron Rakers, who has an overweight rating and a $205 price target on Apple, notes the increased adoption of Macs in the enterprise could come from productivity increases due to Apple's M1 chips and its ability to have a common silicon and operating system platform across its product portfolio.
Rakers cited two examples of the M1 Mac coming from Reddit and Block's (NYSE:SQ) Square, with one Reddit software engineer suggesting that investing $32,000 into M1 MacBooks could save more than $100,000 in productivity in 2022, as it would cut Android build times by more than 50%.
Square engineers found that the M1 Max MacBook Pro was 65% faster than the Intel-based Mac Pro, despite the Mac Pro costing more than $5,000. 
In addition, Apple is expanding its adoption of as-a-service offerings, including Apple Business Essentials, which is slated to become available for small businesses with less than 500 employees by the spring. 
Lastly, the demographics and expanding support for employees to choose their own devices are working in Apple's favor, Rakers pointed out.
Apple shares were up slightly less than 1% to $176.34 in premarket trading on Wednesday.
Digging deeper and going beyond device upgrades of Apple's existing 1.8 billion active device installed base, Rakers suggested that investors should look at demographic trends. More than 70% of college students prefer to work on Mac devices and when that is taken into account and "coupled with the rise of programs that allow employees to choose their own devices," this could drive Mac growth in the enterprise.
"The increase in device choice programs relative to employee preferences when given a choice can potentially drive Apple gain share in the commercial PC market over the coming years," Rakers wrote in the note, adding that a May 2020 survey conducted by Wipro shows that 59% of respondents preferred to use a Mac if given the choice.
On Tuesday, Apple announced a new feature, known as Tap to Pay on iPhone, that will let merchants take payments from customers by simply tapping their iPhone with a digital wallet or contactless credit or debit card, removing the need for additional hardware.