Under the partnership, Apple and SAP will create a new software development kit and training academy to help developers and enterprise customers create tailored business-focused iOS apps. Last year, the Cupertino, California-based company inked an agreement with Cisco Systems that makes it easier for white-collar workers to take calls and videoconferences from iPads and iPhones.
Advertisement
Apple and German database giant SAP just signed a new deal created to push the iPhone and iPad into more businesses, everywhere. In September, Apple introduced the iPad Pro, a tablet for business users with a bigger screen and a stylus.
“We’re proud to take this special partnership between Apple and SAP to a groundbreaking new place”, said Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP.
Finally, much like IBM it wouldn’t be a deal without an educational component to round it out, so SAP is also offering SAP Academy for iOS as a training ground for SAP programmers to learn to use the HANA iOS SDK.
“This partnership will transform how iPhone and iPad are used in enterprise by bringing together the innovation and security of iOS with SAP’s deep expertise in business software”, said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
“This is all about transforming the way people work”, Cook said. It’s also providing an iOS SDK for SAP HANA, its in-memory database product, allowing organizations to not only use the apps that SAP is building, but also giving them the opportunity to build their own custom apps using data stored in HANA.
Apple’s SAP pact rhymes with the one it has with IBM. In the March quarter, iPad unit sales and revenue fell 19% year over year.
“Where they were getting traction was Force.com and that became a billion-dollar business for them”, he said of his competitor.
SAP’s new wave of i-applications will be written in Apple’s Swift language, promising faster response times and better access to underlying iOS technologies as the apps connect to SAP systems in companies’ data centers.
Advertisement
A new SAP Fiori for iOS design language aims to take the AP Fiori user experience to the next level by combining it with a consumer-grade iOS experience to deliver on the robust user needs in the enterprise and enable developers to build next-generation apps.
