Apple is said to have invited representatives from third-party companies to train its employees in their apps and other programs so Apple can better sell companies on the iPad. Much of Apple’s partnership with IBM has focused on delivering iPad apps to targeted verticals and to ensure support for enterprise-wide deployments of the tablets. During that time, Apple clarified that only the iPad Air 2 will get the feature through a firmware update since its A8X processor is powerful enough to handle Split View. It’s an especially promising area for Apple, which – while not a leader in the office desktop environment – has a commanding presence with iOS as the enterprise mobile operating system of choice.
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Based on these leaks and rumors, it seems Apple is preparing to market the iPad Mini 4 as a major upgrade over its predecessor.
At the conference, Apple offered suggestions to the business app makers over how to make their software more refined. The WSJ also reported that the company is working with nearly 40 unidentified enterprise app developers on a project that is internally dubbed “mobility partner program (MPP)”.
Apple has approached a few small businesses including an accounting firm Xero for providing optimum training to its internal business specialists. Apple’s productivity suite (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote), plus it’s lifestyle apps like Photos, iMovie, and GarageBand are included free both on OS X and iOS devices.
Apple also aims to sell application bundles, which are likely to be tailor-made considering specific business requirements.
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The companies will receive help from Apple’s designers to make sure the apps function and potentially advertise them to businesses. The company is also stimulating them to team up and develop apps that work together. Forrester has predicted that, by 2018, 20% of global tablet use will come from the enterprise.
