Apple finds its place in the company

For Apple, we can say that the month of October was marked by events very "pro". In fact, after the JAMF Nation User Conference held Oct. 23-25 ​​in Minneapolis, which focused heavily on deploying, managing and developing applications in the workplace, followed by the presentation on Oct. 29 at Brooklyn, new MacBook Air, Mac mini and iPad Pro with a systematic reference to business environments, it is clear that the presence of Apple in business and professional environments is no longer an anomaly. In all respects, its tools have their place in the office, at home and at school. It's been a while since Apple created solutions with enterprise features. And it's been almost a decade since employees and executives bring their iPhone and iPad to the office. Yet, it seems that something has changed in the corporate IT world that Apple has become a major player in multiple industries. Surprisingly, this does not concern the architecture of Apple or that of its competitors. What has changed is the extent of Apple's presence in the professional world.

For years, the number of companies opting for Apple's solutions (and those of other non-PC platforms like ChromeOS and Android) and the Californian firm's focus on key capabilities of the company have been discussed. such as security, ease of deployment, network support, etc. But often, the size of most of these deployments was limited, as was the extent of these deployments. In general, basic tools like Exchange, VPN, Office, and other productivity tools were supported, and there might have been a modest enterprise application store. At the time, too, it was easy to think that Apple was an ambitious company, which, among other things, also had the ability to integrate its systems into business processes. But his approach went well beyond.

Team up with IBM, SAP and others

IBM's Mac @ IBM program numbers, SAP's adoption for mobile and desktop, and the numbers of several other mbadive deployments, some of which are well-known and some not, are extremely significant. The fact that Apple devices are deployed on a larger scale means that the California manufacturer is at the same level as others in the enterprise technology market. Integrations made by companies like Microsoft and other leaders like Cisco have not been decided after the fact, as if traditional suppliers had conceded a few crumbs here and there to Apple. No, the level of integration has been developed to the point of competing with the PC world.

To give an idea of ​​the iPad market alone, Apple CEO Tim Cook compared the installed base of the Apple tablet to the Windows laptops. The point is that the power of the latest iPad Pro easily rivals that of many desktop PCs and could allow Apple to further expand its incursions into the business. Certainly, some find that the power of the new A12 Bionic chip from the iPad Pro exceeds the needs of many iPad users, including in business environments. But in the end, if the iPad Pro offers all the raw power it will need in the foreseeable future, the model "non-Pro" of 9.7 inches (which succeeds the iPad Air and iPad Air 2) is already sufficient to perform routine work tasks like running Office, accessing computerized patient records at the hospital, or managing hospitality services in distribution, air transport and hotels. Most companies will probably not deploy tens or hundreds of thousands of iPhones, iPads or Macs, but their numbers are increasing. Looking more closely, it is likely that many more laptops, smartphones and tablets Apple will count in the company than a few years ago. And this presence is growing, Apple partnering with partners to develop the support necessary to manage these deployments, while maintaining the specific experience that can offer its equipment.

An iOS that plays its role well

The concept that there will be no third step was one of the main themes of this year's JAMF conference. Using Apple's enterprise configuration system using Apple Business Manager and the Device Enrollment Program (DEP) device enrollment program and the Volume Purchase Program Volume Purchase Program (VPP), companies can have a device – still plastic filmed – delivered to a remote worker who will be automatically enrolled in their management suite, will be able to download updates and security certificates, apply configuration profiles and download predetermined applications (public and internal). The user has nothing to do other than turn on the device, connect to the Internet and get to work.

It's powerful and almost magic for the end user, very easy to set up and manage for the IT department of the company, and it's incredibly scalable. With this, large companies manage to manage their large deployments. The other important thing is that to reach such a level of scalability, Apple has not tried to do everything itself. The manufacturer could have chosen to create its own proprietary deployment, management and support solutions (and develop a bunch of business applications for Apple hardware only). But, from the first days of iOS, the company was smart enough not to make it a priority.

Apple's growth will continue

When the company launched the iPhone 3G in 2008 at the same time as the App Store and the second version of its iPhone OS (now iOS), it did not try to force iPhone owners to use its messaging and collaboration tools. Instead, it has integrated native support for Exchange. Two years later, when Apple introduced enterprise management and deployment features in iOS 4, launched along with the very first iPad, the manufacturer developed a framework that allowed third-party companies to provide companies most IT management tools. This method, Apple did not stop applying it in the years that followed. The builder knows he is good at making hardware and software that gives users a very personal experience, and that's exactly what he focused on. This allows partners and other suppliers to take responsibility for making their products work in the professional world. In 2008, no one would have predicted how much iOS would change the game, that Apple's mobile OS would offer such a level of support for business functions and enterprise tasks, just as the smartphone industry could did not see the impact of the arrival of the first iPhone. At times, it seems that Apple has followed a trend of which he himself was the driving force.

In this close end of year 2018, Apple appears as one of the most important technology providers of the company. After seeing the Adobe Photoshop demo during the Brooklyn event and the sheer scale of Apple hardware deployments across all industries, it's clear that companies represent a huge potential market for the apple firm and that she is not going to rest on her laurels. While the consumer mobile computing market, especially the smartphone market, is saturating, the company represents an ideal growth space for Apple. And the builder is clearly preparing to take advantage of it. Coming back to the new iPad Pro and the new MacBook Air, many people wonder if the iPad Pro can cannibalize sales of Mac. This question is irrelevant for two reasons. First, iPad and Mac sales are good for Apple. More importantly, if the new iPad Pro gains share in the business, it will do at the expense of the PC. That's what makes the scale of the Apple deployments we're seeing – and the ability of the Apple ecosystem to support them – so important.