According to Orrin Klopper, MD of Netsurit, the SME sector should be provided with the same quality service and support expected by big businesses, as it constitutes a significant portion of the economy. He says that, although Netsurit's target market, advertising and marketing, prefers the Apple platform, mixed environments dominate.

He explains that many companies provide management services for Apple and PC environments respectively, but not many companies provide an integrated service.

According to Klopper, the local market is growing at 40 percent, with users in the specific markets being very partial to Apple. Yet, he adds, the need for combined platforms increases as other PC environments advance.

Electron Highway, established to counter the shortage of Apple support skills, coupled with the marketing expertise of Netsurit, should improve capacity to deliver quality service to the industry, says Neil Smith, deputy MD of Electron Highway.

The fact that Apple computers will be based on Intel processors from this year should also be beneficial for successful integration of mixed environments, he adds.