We always like to tell readers when the ‘other shoe falls’ concerning Apple technology. Earlier this week we reported how Apple products are seeing huge growth rates compared to PCs in both government and business. Today, we see why: corporate IT gatekeepers are becoming more comfortable with iOS-based products, particularly the iPad.
Unlike when the iPhone was first introduced in 2007, the Cupertino, Calif. company has devoted time and effort to answering the concerns businesses expressed early on. Such issues included ways to encrypt information and establishing secure methods to connect to corporate networks, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The latest versions of iOS “adds features that make the devices easier for a tech department to manage, including the ability for businesses to distribute internally developed apps without going through Apple’s App Store,” the newspaper writes.
Part of the reason why the iPad is being allowed beyond the corporate velvet ropes is Apple’s concerted effort to include features in the iOS platform which appeal to the enterprise. For instance, the iPad has Exchange e-mail and other business-centric capabilities once available only in the iPhone or iPod touch.
Another reason: more than 500 iPad applications focus on business users. A free Citrix app lets company workers use corporate tools on the iPad. The app has been downloaded more than 145,000, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A final reason could be the iPad’s $499 cost – less than a business laptop while still offering the same functionality for tasks such as giving a presentation.
[AppleInsider, WSJ]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
