Apple is seeking new ways to support enterprise businesses, a growing faction of the trillion-dollar-a-year tech giant’s business. Atherton Research estimates Apple’s enterprise business is worth $40 billion annually.
In every new iPhone since 2008, Apple has been adding new enterprise features, including solutions for security management, identity and productivity.
In 2010, the iPad joined their lineup as an enterprise-level tool, with specific custom apps.
“It’s not just the creative department or just the developers that are creating apps using the Mac as a productivity tool,” says Susan Prescott, Apple’s Vice President of Markets, Apps and Services. “What we’re seeing is that businesses are giving employees the option for what [computer] they want to use.”
Prescott spoke a lot about a new movement in enterprise-level companies called BYOD: Bring Your Own Device. Increasingly, employees are choosing the operating system and brand that they find most productive and efficient. Apple has embraced this philosophy and is actively addressing how to make their products work better for businesses.
As part of the new initiative, Apple is rolling out a new user enrollment feature that will allow two user IDs on the same device. This allows employees to keep their personal information in one user ID and their corporate information in another. The double IDs ensure the IT department doesn’t get access to personal pictures or other information, and also guarantees that it’s easy for internal corporate information to be wiped from the device if the employee moves on.