Apple Inc. is taking an increasingly big bite out of enterprise mobility.
Thanks, of course, to BYOD policies, iPhones and iPads are showing up in the hands of staff, leaving IT administrators in a quandary.
On the one hand, it takes some support weight off their shoulders if the corporate strategy is to let staff buy their own devices while paying only for voice and data. On the other hand, IT has to marry Apple iOS with the Windows desktop platform and look after mobile application management.
But industry analyst Mary Shacklett argues there’s another problem: Apple doesn’t have an enterprise strategy.
To convince IT leaders Apple is serious about it’s new-found presence in the enterprise she says the company should consider building an enterprise solution stack covering mobile computing, desktop office suite computing and cloud-enabled solutions.
That takes away from Apple’s traditional consumer focus. However, if the company wants to be taken seriously in the enterprise, it has to be a participant and not an add-on.