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Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Apple's corporate iPhone, iPad app strength bad news for rivals

By | July 20, 2011, 2:00am PDT

Apple appears to be extending its lead in the enterprise with the tag team of the iPhone and iPad. Meanwhile, some corporate customers are developing custom iOS apps for their employees.

On Apple’s third quarter conference call—following blowout earnings—CFO Peter Oppenheimer noted some serious enterprise strength. Here’s what he said about the iPhone.

iPhone continues to be adopted as a standard across the enterprise, with 91% of the Fortune 500 deployed or testing the device, up from 88% last quarter. We are also seeing great growth in scale worldwide. Today 57% of Global 500 companies are testing or deploying iPhone, fueled by strong employee demand and opportunities for custom app development.

The key element there is “opportunities for custom app development.” If corporations start developing iOS corporate apps, the chances of them suddenly dropping Apple are slim. After all, corporations developed applications for Microsoft’s IE 6 and still have them even though the browser is antique and the software giant is begging them to ditch its ancient version of Explorer.

Also: 10 iPad 2 apps for business

Oppenheimer also cited global strength for corporate iPhone adoption. He cited Axa, Credit Agriole, Nestle and Dow Chemical as companies officially supporting the iPhone.

The pull of the iPhone is also rubbing off on the iPad. This point is also quite relevant to Apple table rivals, which are largely aiming at the enterprise.

On the iPhone front, Oppenheimer said:

Today 86% of the Fortune 500 are deploying or testing iPad within their enterprises, up from 75% last quarter. We are also seeing strong adoption internationally with 47% of Global 500 companies testing or deploying iPad. In the 15 months since iPad has shipped, we have seen iPad used in the enterprise in ways we could have never imagined.

Oppenheimer cited iPad wins at Boston Scientific, Xerox and Salesforce.com. He also cited hospital wins, which illustrates some vertical strength. He added:

General Electric, SAP and Standard Charter have developed internal apps for training, currency tracking and business process management to help make employees even more productive. Alaska Airlines and American Airlines are using the iPad in cockpits to replace paper-based navigational and reference information pilots carry with them on every flight. We continue to be delighted by the diverse and sometimes unexpected use cases we see around iPads.

Again, the key theme here is corporate apps. If enterprises develop on iOS they aren’t going to budge for years.

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Topics

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: Apple's corporate iPhone, iPad app strength bad news for rivals
varase 16th Nov
To be fair, these guys are doing nothing more than we are: trying to make sense out of the market.

I guess ever since the iPod consumers have come to the realization that Apple makes good stuff that looks good, lasts a long time, is easy to use, and has good customer support. And they're willing to pay extra for those things. Apple products just don't have the same level of hassle their competitors ship with their products.

For a lot of things, cheaper just isn't worth it and can cost you your sanity in the long run.
I find it odd that Apple's rivals would even bother to produce any competing products. It is illogical.

It is clear by the bloggers here that competing products do not stand a chance of selling, so would not the money spent developing these tablets be better spent funding their employee's early retirement?

plain
@Mister Spock

It's not Apple's fault their competition is unable to compete. Apple is doing something the others can't figure out. Until they can, it's a one pony show. It has become very hard to out innovate Apple. Plus with their own IP and patent portfolio, companies can't replicate Apple's IP and call it their own the way Microsoft and others have done in the past.
@gtdworak It is illegal to use the hard cash you have to innovate. Apple should not crush competition by creating good products. Apple should live and let live. Even if they innovate, they should allow competitors to copy for free

[/sarcasm]
@gtdworak A very bad news to google if htc lose the patent case agains apple .. google in this market is seeming to fall
http://www.geekwindow.com/2011/07/apple-wins-patent-case-against-android.html
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Bulls*it
MSFTWorshipper 20th Jul
@gtdworak Apple is selling more iPhones in the enterprise because everyone wants the shiny iToy regardless that RIM and others have better enterprise integration. This is all marketing fluff.
@gtdworak If you call out Microsoft, don't leave out Apple who zeroxes as much innovations as anyone else. The one thing Apple does really well is keeping everything from hardware to software design in house and creating a stable easy to use platform in iOS. I prefer MS products because they work the way my mind does, I have never been able to pick up a Apple product and intuitively use it efficiently.
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@gtdworak

About MS. Look, if you have to lie to convince yourself that everything you believe is true even though it's not, that's fine, but don't try pushing those lies off on us.

And that IP and patent portfolio, if it's so great why did they steal Creative's menu system (and was forced to pay Creative for) for the iPod line, to name just one of many IP they've taken and called their own?

Now that's known as "a truthful statement".
@William Pharaoh

"if it's so great why did they steal Creative's menu system (and was forced to pay Creative for) for the iPod line, to name just one of many IP they've taken and called their own?"

Because they weren't, but nice revisionist history.

Now that's known as "a truthful statement".

William Pharaoh
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Ouch!
Info-Dave Updated - 20th Jul
@Mister Spock - or perhaps they could return the money to the shareholders.

Microsoft cannot chase Apple or Google and win. In the tablet market, it's Apple's game to lose. They own it today.
@Info-Dave
Apple has a glass ceiling in that they will never pass more than about 30% market share in a given category. To do more than that they would have to drop their premium prices, which is unlikely, and it would also attract the attention of competition authorities.
Google is insulated from that by their partnerships, but vulnerable on both IP concerns and their usual inability to move beyond their "one-trick" of online advertising, backed up by search.
There is still room for more players in this space.
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I agree with you...
Info-Dave 20th Jul
... and I am more of a cynic than you are.

I don't think Apple wants to dominate the markets they are in. The iPad is an aberration at this point. Apple's strength is in its profitability. From a financial perspective, they are already bigger than Microsoft, Dell and HP, combined.

I hope HP can make an impact with webOS. And I hope RIM survives, even if just a niche player in the secure solution space. The worst thing that could happen would be for Apple to become the next Microsoft.
@A.Sinic
Apple has a glass ceiling in that they will never pass more than about 30% market share in a given category? Except for the iPod.(>70%) And the iPad.(>80%) And the iTunes media store, largest digital media store on the planet.) And the app store. ($1.7 billion revenue in 2011 compared to $103 million for the Google app store.)

"they would have to drop their premium prices?" You mean like the prices of the iPad and iPods which no one seems to be able undercut at any significant margin.
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@Synthmeister
Info-Dave 20th Jul
Your response was much better than mine!
@Info-Dave But how long will they own it? New tablets are coming out often. I want to buy the latest and not have it be ourr dated in a few months.
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@Info-Dave

MS handed out some licenses for Win 7 tablets, but they haven't rushed out and created an iPad knock-off like Google did with Android.

Look, Android is nice and all, but it's not in the same league as iOS (as sales would show), and Google and OEM's better realize this and fast.

MS on the other hand looks to be taking a different approach, an ARM based Windows 8 solution, with Zune Marketplace already in place for PC's and XBox, some strong selling points, IMO.

But can't say much until next 2012, so it's really a wait and see thing at this point and time.
@sandra
"New tablets are coming out often. I want to buy the latest and not have it be ourr dated in a few months."

How can you fail to see the contradiction here?!? Any tablet you buy that is the latest will be outdated in a few months BECAUSE new tablets are coming out often. The only solution is not to ever buy a tablet, or a computer for that matter.
@Mister Spock

Most companies have completely underestimated the investment required to duplicate Apple's products, much less innovate and surpass Apple in some way. Even companies like HP that had the resources to invest billions have failed to understand this. They all thought that producing a hardware knockoff was enough, but it wasn't even close. The iTunes infrastructure, the carrier agreements, and the marketing clout of Apple have contributed as much or more to Apple's success, and every single competitor has failed in these areas.

So I don't think there will be any viable competitors to Apple for a long time. There is no chance that Apple will allow a competitor to access the iTunes and App Store infrastructure, so until the Android Market, Amazon, or some other 3rd-party infrastructure can become as useful and ubiquitous, Apple has the market sewn up.
@Mister Spock I have a top of the line computer and a Kindle. I stay at home most days, so I have these available to me. Why would I need an IPad?
@Sandra4 I don't think anybody said that anybody NEEDS and iPad.
@Mister Spock I don't think it's their fault TBH. DJ agency
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Where are these iPads in the enterprise? Plenty of people saying they are there but I'm not seeing it. iPad would serve very little use in an enterprise setting unless that place is a warehouse and tracking inventory. I have to call this report false on that part.
@LoverockDavidson

I'd love to see the full results of your survey. Please include your methodology.
@msalzberg
No.
@LoverockDavidson

No problem. So we can deduce that there's no survey, just your vivid imagination.
@msalzberg
There isn't much place for a tablet in the enterprise. Its not hard to come to that conclusion.
@LoverockDavidson

"Its not hard to come to that conclusion."
Apparently not. It does, however, appear to be quite difficult, if not impossible, for you to justify it.
@LoverockDavidson Didn't realize you pay a visit to 100 different enterprises each day to check up on iPad use. My last company, LiveU, and my current company, a NJ based bank, both utilized/utilizes many iPads for many different reasons. iPads are used everywhere, you must be under a rock. I went into a department store last week and saw an employee walking around with one helping customers.
@Bates_
Doubtful. Very very doubtful.
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Yeah, what they said
Info-Dave 20th Jul
@Lover,

You're on thin ice with your comments, and I doubt seriously that you can substantiate them. You are just making it up.

Very early on a car company, I think it was Mercedes, built an iPad app to help their dealers sell more cars.

Surveys just showed 86% of the corporate world was testing the iPad, up from 75% last year.

Companies with software designed for the Internet, like salesforce.com, are receiving instant gratification with the iPad.

But, you're right Lover, there are pockets where XP rules and web facing apps require IE6. You should really get out more.
@Info-Dave
Key word in your statements is they were testing them, a pilot project. Doesn't mean they deployed them.
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@lover
Info-Dave 20th Jul
You're in denial.
@Info-Dave
Denial about what? I'm the only one who sees clearly on this issue.
@LoverockDavidson
I work for a fortune 500 and people have them in meetings... where do you work???
@Hasam1991
Are they coasters for people to set their coffee cups on? I can see everyone huddling around each other invading the personal space to look at the iPad. Sure you bring them to meetings.
@LoverockDavidson

"Where are these iPads in the enterprise? Plenty of people saying they are there but I'm not seeing it."

Are you an only child? Reason I ask is that your response sounds much like what I would expect from one. "I'm not seeing it." This is the classic inability to see outside your own little world. It's the "if I don't see it then it must not exist" mentality.

Hate to break it to you, but you're not the center of the universe...
@smtp4me@...
So you had nothing better to say about the issue at hand and just wanted to bash me. I guess we can ask if you are an only child because a response like that is what I would expect from one.

Hate to break it to you, but you're not the center of the universe...
Yes I am.
@LoverockDavidson
You have NEVER had anything useful to say on ANY issue, so you are one to talk.
@LoverockDavidson: I happen to know that both Chase and Bank of America both are using iPads and iPhones in their corporate headquarters, frequently replacing Blackberry devices. I have been reading blogs for over a year that clearly state that the iPad is in sales, marketing, DBM, hospitals and hundreds of other corporate use for management as well as lower-level supervisors/foremen. Simply because you can't see a use for it doesn't mean uses don't exist.
@vulpine@...
I haven't seen any real world cases of this. A lot of blogs are going around saying these companies are testing them but then nothing comes out of it. Just a bunch of hearsay.
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But... But... But...
i8thecat3 20th Jul
@vulpine@...

But according to all the tools..er.. I mean trolls... iToys have no place in enterprise and they are just t.t.t.t.t.t.t.toys...

Hmmm... Guess they all proved just how clueless they are.
0 Votes
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@LoverockDavidson:

As I said, just because YOU don't see them doesn't mean they aren't there. I DO see them and I DO talk to people who know they are there; just as I know some individuals are trying to get these same companies to use Android and that in at least one of them Android is rejected due to security issues that should never have existed.

The Blackberry environment is dying rapidly; Android can't, yet, get a grip on its problems; HP's WebOS is only just emerging and WP7 is getting an abysmally slow start. That leaves only Apple's iOS to enter and build upon the market RIM created and it seems to have more than a foot in the door.
@LoverockDavidson You call this report false simply because it doesn't back up your claim that tablets are a fad.
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Real, no matter what YOU say
frabjous 24th Jul
@LoverockDavidson If you can bear to see actual facts and real examples, go to: www.apple.com/ipad/business/profiles/
The bubble's nearing the limit and will contract again. The "app" for everything model of Apple won't stand the test of time. It's too restrictive and expensive. If lockin to the garden is Apple's strategy, the fall is going to be painful. The world will be differerent 12-18 months from now.
@Skippy99

Wanna bet?
We have two Droid phones - the best ones. I don't like to use one of them because it has just too many things on it. I want a phone to call someone and text. I have a great computer and a Kindle. I am wondering why I would buy an IPad.
To be fair, these guys are doing nothing more than we are: trying to make sense out of the market.

I guess ever since the iPod consumers have come to the realization that Apple makes good stuff that looks good, lasts a long time, is easy to use, and has good customer support. And they're willing to pay extra for those things. Apple products just don't have the same level of hassle their competitors ship with their products.

For a lot of things, cheaper just isn't worth it and can cost you your sanity in the long run.

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