Apple today announced a new partnership with SAP to "revolutionize" the mobile work experience for its enterprise customers by combining native iPhone and iPad apps with the SAP HANA Cloud Platform. Under the partnership, Apple and SAP will create a new software development kit and training academy to help developers and enterprise customers create tailored business-focused iOS apps.
"This partnership will transform how iPhone and iPad are used in enterprise by bringing together the innovation and security of iOS with SAP's deep expertise in business software," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "As the leader in enterprise software and with 76% of business transactions touching an SAP system, SAP is the ideal partner to help us truly transform how businesses around the world are run on iPhone and iPad. Through the new SDK, we're empowering SAP's more than 2.5 million developers to build powerful native apps that fully leverage SAP HANA Cloud Platform and tap into the incredible capabilities that only iOS devices can deliver."
The new SAP HANA Cloud Platform SDK will be developed exclusively for iOS and will give enterprise customers simple tools for "quickly and efficiently" building apps for iPhone and iPad based on the SAP HANA Cloud Platform. According to the press release, the native apps will provide access to core data and business processes on SAP HANA while also taking advantage of Apple hardware features like Touch ID, Location Services, and Notifications.
Under the partnership, a new SAP Fiori iOS design language will be created, and SAP will also develop a suite of native iOS apps for "critical business operations" built on Apple's Swift programming language.
Top Rated Comments
This is a big deal, as SAP is widely used by multiple organizations of varying sizes, including IBM. A partnership here can only propel the iOS platform in enterprise to even more expansive heights than it already is, and also help to accelerate iPad adoption in enterprise.
The only BS here is the trash being spewed by those sitting behind their keyboards pretending to be some kind of cyber columnist or warrior against the vile of Tim Cook, pathetic.
Pushing Apple products in:
health/medical (researchkit, carekit, Health, future Watch updates),
education (ConnectEd, classroom management),
business (IBM, SAP)
These are entirely separate areas that require fairly different approaches. They would be crazy not to pursue all relevant markets.
On topic: It's good to see Apple trying to make enterprise a viable part of it's growth strategy for the future. It's especially encouraging for iPads since that category needs a boost like no other in Apple's stable. Hopefully, this enterprise push isn't a day late/dollar short.
It appears, as suspected, a dot matrix printer accessory for SAP and iPhone 7 is confirmed.