Since the “fall” of the BlackBerry as an enterprise phone, the gap for the next true enterprise phone had never been filled. Samsung and Apple continue to rival for the market share in enterprise and so we can’t be surprised if Apple is opening up its closed Eco-system to third parties.
Steven Jobs would never be happy since his vision was to make and keep apple a fully closed system. However at the Apple WWDC keynote yesterday apple opened up its maps and Siri to third party developers. Also amidst falling revenue and market share, Apple is looking to tighten its grip on the enterprise market.
iOS 9 featured a lot of security upgrades and innovation which are very important to the enterprise market (in fact it the reason why blackberry ruled enterprise). And for this year’s iOS 10, Apple and Cisco have announced a plan to build tools to help iPhones and iPads take advantage of Cisco’s business collaboration products, such as its voice and video conferencing services.
By tightly integrating iOS and Cisco products, the end result could make iPhones and iPads perform better in corporate environments, as well as kick start sales for the iPad, which has been experiencing declining sales for six consecutive quarters.
“iOS is the world’s best mobile platform, and nearly every Fortune 500 and Global 500 company today has put iOS at the center of their mobile strategy,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone and iPad have become essential tools for the modern workforce and are changing the way work gets done. Together with Cisco, we believe we can give businesses the tools to maximize the potential of iOS and help employees become even more productive using the devices they already love.” Part of the press release on from apple read last year.
Since then, Apple has been working closely with Cisco engineers and interface designers to help create a more intensive co-mingling between Cisco software and networks and iOS devices. Today, the announcement involved Cisco Spark, Cisco’s cloud collaboration platform and some advanced networking too.
They also set it up so that iOS can find the fastest available Cisco wireless network to give users the “best available” connection, as well as “fast lane” capability, which, according to a company blog post, lets your IT department prioritize business-critical apps, giving them priority on a Cisco wireless network (sort of a private kind of internet throttling).
All of these enterprise agreements have been designed to let both parties get something from the deal. The vendors get access to Apple’s keen design sense, while Apple can take advantage of the enterprise smarts of the partners and sell more Apple devices inside large companies, where Apple has traditionally had a tough time gaining traction.
www.forbes.com
