United Is Giving 23,000 Flight Attendants An iPhone 6 Plus

They'll use the iPhones to take credit cards from customers for on-board purchases.

They will also be able to use them for email and access internal documents like training manuals.

United has been giving iPads to its pilots since 2011.

United isn't the first airline to issue smartphones to its flight attendants. Delta gave its flight attendants Nokia Windows phones over a year ago. Delta also gave its pilots Surface tablets from Microsoft.

So this United deal is also a big win for Apple, which has been doing more work to sell devices directly to big companies (like Microsoft), instead of only to individuals. It's been hiring enterprise salespeople, and its deal with IBM is beginning to bear fruit as the two companies develop apps for businesses.