No One Is Talking About Apple's Next Big Challenge In Its Partnership With IBM
It's an exciting convergence of two of the largest tech firms out there, and the end result may erode the PC's strong grip on the enterprise market.
When the news of the IBM partnership hit, the common theory was that this would be a way for Apple to fix its shrinking growth in iPad sales.
But if Apple wants to boost its business bona fides, it will have to develop a better than just selling a bunch of iPhones and iPads to big companies.
Apps are key too, according to a source familiar with Apple's enterprise strategy. And Apple needs way to showcase enterprise apps or launch a standalone enterprise app store that would be a hub business employees could go to while setting up their devices.
Penetrating the enterprise will be a heavy lift for Apple. For example, enterprise software giant SAP already has dozens of apps in the App Store, suggesting that there's something substantial that Apple will need to latch onto if it wants to succeed.
However, enterprise apps are still lumped together with everything from the Kim Kardashian game to Snapchat. And finding the app you want when you need it is still a big challenge for the App Store. Poor curation and search in the App Store are two of the biggest problems developers want Apple to fix.
In short, Apple needs to take its enterprise app ecosystem as seriously as it takes iOS devices.