No more Mr. Bearded Guy.

For much of my life in business you got what the Information Technology department (rarely was there a greater misnomer) dictated, meaning a PC with Windows, Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

Likely as not the guy in the corner office was computer blind and had (as did many of my bosses) his secretary print out his emails so he could read them and she would type replies. I am not making this up. That generation regarded using a keyboard not only as demeaning, it was a servile function reserved for low paid ‘girls’.

This was great for IT as they got the ultimate in job protection – they chose the hardware and software, got the vendor kickbacks, and there were no decision makers to argue. Their ‘client’ was a secretary ….

But that is all quickly coming to a close. The moment I exited the corporate system, because I hated being told what to do by someone I mostly had little regard for, and started working for myself, I dumped the PC and anything to do with it, and moved to the Mac. I still needed Excel, true, because I crunch a lot of numbers in my day job of managing money, but what drove me to the Mac was my love of photography and a desire to have as little technology intrude between my snaps and the finished print. Plus, I hated having to reboot all the time.

However, Apple has done a lousy job of selling to big enterprises and that only started changing with the iPhone, the most disruptive technology of the past five years. The CEO got one because his existing cell phone was garbage, and told IT to make it work with the company’s systems, over all their self-serving protestations about security. He then went home, buying an iMac on the way, because he was tired of having the smelly, bearded guy from IT come around, pick his nose and reboot his PC. Plus the iMac looked cool in his mansion.

That same CEO just got an iPad because it didn’t cost much and he knew it would work. The most disruptive technology of the next five years. And his kids loved it. And, yes, it too looked cool. Now he has his salesforce using the iPad and IT has reverted to being servant and is no longer master. They have to support what revenue generators demand, not what they think gives them job security. Hurrah for that. And the back end has migrated to Unix servers leaving no room for MSFT’s substandard server software.

That’s why the potential for corporate sales of AAPL’s mobile products is where the greatest revenue growth lies for AAPL, because Apple is just waking up to the demand. Tablet devices will front as the smart client for all those Unix servers and corporate users will increasingly write tailored apps (which do not have to go through the awful App Store and the related approval process staffed by that same bearded guy who lost his job in IT) for in-house use.

The primary users of full blown desktop computers will be the accountants, marketers and engineers. Few others need one. And once we get voice-to-screen perfected, the keyboard will die and a new generation of users will have to learn dictation skills. As for the laptop, it’s already rapidly becoming an anachronism.

Yesterday’s IT. Leica M2, 50mm Summicron.

Disclosure: Long AAPL and AAPL call options.