While sales of new Macs are surging the second-user market is also seeing strong momentum, prompting Blancco Technology Group and Cambrionix to introduce a new solution to help quickly erase and prepare large numbers of Macs for sale.

Why would there demand for such a solution? Does its existence really represent a shift toward the use of Apple hardware in the enterprise? I spoke with Kon Maragelis, senior lead, mobile & ITAD at Blancco, who confirmed continued growth in Mac reuse across secondary markets. 

“Demand is being driven by a combination of factors, including the high residual value of Apple devices, longer product life cycles, and increasing interest from both businesses and consumers in more sustainable and cost-effective alternatives to new hardware,” he said. 

More Macs are entering refurb sales channels

The inherent value of the platform brings its own reward. “Macs, in particular, tend to retain their value longer than many other laptops, making them highly attractive in second-user markets,” he said. “As a result, we’re seeing growing volumes entering refurbishment and resale channels.”

The new solution combines Blancco Eraser for Apple Devices software with the Cambrionix ThunderSync5-C16 industrial-grade hub. The system lets IT remove data from 16 Macs simultaneously in less than 20 minutes, certifying the results to industry standards. You can expand the number of Macs handled with the addition of an extra hub and the companies claim to offer the fastest such data-compliant system in the business.

While existing tools usually process Macs at a rate of three to 10 per hour, the combined solution can process as many as 48 Macs each hour — more if you add additional hubs. The system will even reinstall the operating system, which means IT can quickly and securely delete and prepare Macs for reuse or sale.

These kinds of tool matter for any business managing large fleets, particularly those with high data compliance burdens. They also matter to IT asset disposal (ITAD) firms, educational districts, health technology deployment, and more.

Holding value

Typically, larger organizations rely on third-party firms to handle erasure, reimaging, and sale to second-user markets, but there is growing interest in bringing solutions like this in-house. As Mac adoption increases in corporate environments, it’s reasonable to expect the demand for secure, scalable processing to grow.

Maragelis characterized Mac deployment in the enterprise, as being championed by cloud-first, developer-led, modern workplace environments. “As these devices enter refresh cycles, we expect continued growth in enterprise-driven reuse,” he said.

Macs have always retained value in second-user markets, meaning that strength reflects popularity in brand new markets. If there’s strong demand for the latest Mac, you’ll probably also find a surge in demand for an older model. Take the MacBook Neo; its introduction prompted many potential customers to look at slightly older MacBook Airs instead. (Apple doesn’t mind as it sells plenty of both.)

Logically then, shouldn’t growing Mac market share be reflected in second-user sales? “Yes, we are seeing continued growth in Mac reuse across secondary markets,” Margelis said. “We’re also seeing growing demand for faster, higher-volume refurbishment and resale of Mac devices.”

What comes next?

While it’s hard into the future, he did note how the adoption of Apple Silicon in Macs and mobile devices may make for other synergies: “One key shift is the need for more unified processing across Macs and iPhones, where similar architectures allow for more consistent workflows across diagnostics, secure data erasure, and validation. This opens up new opportunities to apply mobile-scale automation approaches to Mac processing.”

That’s nice if that’s your business. But for the rest of us, the very existence of products like these signifies a rapidly growing demand for Macs, even as Microsoft increases prices for its own hardware. 

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