The move to remote work and education is giving Apple devices and Jamf, which makes software to manage Macs, iPads and iPhones in the enterprise, a nice lift.

Jamf’s first financial results as a public company highlighted strong growth as schools and universities as well as enterprises went remote during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company reported a second quarter net loss of $423,000, or break even on a per share basis, on revenue of $62.2 million, up 29% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were a nickel a share.

Jamf projected third quarter revenue of $65 million to $66 million with non-GAAP operating income of $5 million to $7 million. Revenue for 2020 will be $255 million to $257 million, said Jamf.

During the second quarter, Jamf launched an IPO, grew the number of devices running the company’s software to 17.2 million and rolled out macOS malware prevention, a telehealth workflow suite called Virtual Visits and Learn Anywhere for schools, teachers and students.

Jamf’s quarter wasn’t that surprising as laptop demand and mobile devices such as tablets have surged in the enterprise and educational institutions. Companies including Apple, Dell and HP have all seen gains among companies going remote. On the education front, Apple and Google Chromebooks dominate.

“Jamf embraces Apple technology because of its legendary simplicity for the individual. As Apple focuses on a person, Jamf focuses on the people. Our goal is to empower people with Apple technology and to make every enterprise experience as simple and seamless as Apple’s consumer experience,” said Jamf CEO Dean Hager.

Here are the key takeaways from Hager and Jamf on Apple in the enterprise:

• Employees are expecting a touchless IT experience, which may wind up helping Apple gain more traction in the enterprise. Hager said:

Technology is no longer part of the employee experience. It is the entire employee experience. What was once nice to have is now a necessity. Even after we work through this difficult period, we do not believe the world will go back to the way things were. These past several months have laid the groundwork for a future where people can work from anywhere, learn anywhere, and receive care anywhere.

• Education and healthcare were the strongest verticals in the second quarter, said Jill Putnam, Jamf CFO.
• Jamf is seeing customers cut staff and lower device contract renewals and some others have delayed payments. Those challenges have been offset by spending to move to remote work and education, said Hager.
• In healthcare, Jamf is often deploying and configuring Microsoft Teams and Zoom on iPads for virtual visits.
• Government stimulus programs are helping schools in Germany, Japan and US to deploy remote learning devices such as iPads. Jamf is often melding Apple device with Google educational tools such as Classroom and Meet.
• The total Apple Enterprise Management market is estimated to be $10.3 billion in 2019 and growing to $23.4 billion by end of 2024, according to Boston Sullivan. Consumerization of IT and ease of use are driving enterprise use of iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Macs. “We see enterprise market share for Macs continuing to expand, which we believe is still in the early stages,” said Hager, who later noted that momentum will continue even when Apple moves to its own processors over Intel.

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• There’s a lag between Apple units in a quarter and enterprise adoption that would boost Jamf’s growth. Nevertheless, units are a nice leading indicator. 

• The buying cycle for education has been altered by COVID-19. Hager explained:

The bulk of the business is in K-12 of our education business, about 85%. And I would say this year because of COVID that the buying season for education is even extending closer to the school year, and we would even expect it to enter into the school year a little bit.

And that is for a few reasons. One is the need to serve those students, and two is just the processes for getting budgeting for it. So schools are going through that process to get budgeting in place in order to do their purchases to be ready for the school year. It’s a little bit heightened this year compared to most years; I believe.

• Education is likely to embrace distance learning as a permanent fixture similar to remote work in enterprises, said Hager.