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As noted by The Verge, Apple has launched a new page on its website highlighting some of the features in iOS 7 targeted at business users.
iOS 7 provides enhanced security, powerful new ways to configure and deploy devices at scale, and features to help businesses purchase, distribute, and manage apps with ease. Features including per app VPN, enterprise single sign on, App Store license management, and new mobile device management (MDM) configuration options are just some of the new capabilities in iOS 7 that provide more for organizations of all sizes.
Among the features highlighted by Apple:
- Manage which apps and accounts can be used to open documents
- Configure individual apps to automatically connect to VPN when opened
- More flexible management of App Store licenses for companies
- New configuration options and streamlined enrollment for mobile device management (MDM)
- Single sign on for authenticating corporate credentials across apps
- Passcode protection of data in third-party apps
- Mail improvements
- Server caching of software purchases and downloads for more efficient distribution
Apple regularly address enterprise adoption of the iPhone and iPad during its quarterly earnings conference calls, noting during its most recent call that according to one study iOS devices are currently accounting for 77% of enterprise device activations. Nearly all of the Fortune 500 companies have piloted or deployed iPhone and iPad with new authorization from the U.S. Department of Defense to use iOS devices on secure military networks, boosting the status of iOS as a secure platform.
Apple has posted a similar page highlighting iOS 7 features for education users. Many of the same features as those highlighted for business are included on that page, with AirDrop, Apple TV enhancements, and iTunes U and iCloud backup for students of all ages unique to the education page.
Top Rated Comments
iOS already dominates enterprise over Android and BB. Now Apple has made a huge upgrade to security and device management for those same users. Game over for Android and BB as far as enterprise goes.
Wont airdrop help with that?
You'd think it would, but (so far) Apple has made the genius decision of not allowing airdrop to work between Macs and iOS devices, crippling it for no good reason.
Dear APPLE:
How to fix iOS:
1) Add a Finder.app for file management and transfer
2) Let AppStore apps access and modify files saved in Finder
3) Fix AirDrop
4) Let Finder access iCloud on iOS and OS X and let us put whatever files we want in there
DONE. iOS IS NOW PERFECT.
How not to fix iOS:
1) Ruin all the icons
2) Make everything blindingly white
3) Make the wallpaper blow bubbles and wobble when you move
4) Make the font eye-itchingly thin.
OH WAIT, WHOOPS.
What Apple can do is provide us with a file manager that limits the folders you can see and also give us the ability to transfer files to these folders directly via USB or downloads. It's just a wish and I don't think Apple will ever implement this.
I think any "file browser" like app that Apple will implement for iOS would be based on tags. An app that can list all tagged documents across various application sandboxes to allow you to view them in different contexts. Possibly with some sort of quick view feature.
I'd bet on viewing only. No way to transfer documents between applications. Sharing would still be handled by the app that owns the document.
Could be in iOS 7 based on Apple's mention that tags created in Mavericks sync to iOS devices.
I just don't understand how you can use iOS efficiently in business if you cannot even copy document to/from it without iTunes
I have all kinds of documents on my iphone and ipad and I never had to connect to itunes. In fact itunes doesn't even have my phone.
Needing a file browser is so 2000s. And in the corporate world documents come from 4 places. Web, Email, Self, or corporate document repository.