Apple partners with Cisco to take on the enterprise market

Steven Loeb · August 31, 2015 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/3fd9

The partnership will optimize Cisco apps on iOS, and create a "fast lane" for iOS business users

When I think of the enterprise space, the smartphones I picture workers using are not iPhones. In my mind I picture them using BlackBerry's, especially since that's the market the company has so aggressively been going after under the leadership of John Chen the last couple of years.

It turns out, though, that Apple has been making a big dent in this market recently and now it is looking to gain an even bigger slice of the pie, announcing on Monday that it has teamed up with Cisco in order to lure even in more business customers by giving them better Cisco tools. 

The partnership will optimize Cisco networks for iOS devices and apps, integrating iPhone with Cisco enterprise environments and providing collaboration on iPhone and iPad, there by a so-called "fast lane" for iOS business users. This implies that Cisco will actually favor iPhones over other operating systems, something that should make Android, BlackBerry or Windows pretty upset.

Through the partnership, Cisco will make it easier for its users to to integrate services such as its communication app Cisco Spark, its video conferencing service Cisco Telepresence and and its online meeting service, Cisco WebEx, on Apple devices. 

In addition, the two companies are also going to be working together to make optimize the iPhone so that it can be used as a business collaboration tool in Cisco voice and video environments, with the ultimate goal being to provide employees with integration of the iPhone and their desk phone.

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,” Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said in a statement.

"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.”

Apple already has a pretty advantage in the enterprise.

As of the first quarter of this year, iOS devices had 72% of all activations in the enterprise. In fact, iOS has maintained a market share of over 70% since the introduction of the iPhone 6, which had 26% of activations alone, according to the Mobility Index Report from Good.com.

This might be the result of the bring your own device (BYOD) movement, in which companies are more frequently allowing their employees to use their personal devices to access their work environment, sometimes including privledged or classified information and documents.

This is in contrast to BlackBerry's model, in which businesses essentially buy devices for their employees that are separate from their personal devices. This movement has gained steam in the last few years, partially as a cost saving manuever, and it has, unsurprisingly, benefited Apple, which is the top smartphone vendor.

If Apple can position itself as the top operating system for business, as well as personal use, it may help to drive up sales of the iPad, which have been flagging recently. That is not something that is only happening to Apple; tablets in general have seen their sales decline for each of the last three quarters

In Q2 of this year, shipments totaled 44.7 million, down from 49.3 million in the same quarter in 2014. At that time shipments had grown 11% year-to-year.

Giving employees more incentive to go out and buy the devices, by giving them the best possible business collaboration experience, could be the thing that turns it around.

(Image source: zdnet.com)

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