Apple Takes Aim At The Enterprise With SAP Partnership And HANA Cloud SDK For iOS

When iPhone or iPad sales start heading south, you can count on Apple to look for ways to further expand its reach. After iPad sales starting taking a turn for the worse, Apple inked an enterprise development deal with IBM. And now that both iPhone and iPad sales are down (but moreso the iPad), Apple is once again looking to boost its enterprise cred — this time with SAP.

Apple hopes that its alliance with SAP will “revolutionize the mobile work experience for enterprise customers of all sizes.” The fruits of this partnership will include a new SAP HANA Cloud Platform SDK for iOS that will allow businesses to create iPhone and iPad apps that are uniquely tailored for their environment. Apps will be created using Apple’s advanced Swift programming language and will incorporate the SAP Fiori for iOS design language.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and SAP CEO Bill McDermott (Image Source: SAP)

“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 Apple CEO Tim Cook. “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.”

“In giving people an agile and intuitive business experience, we empower them to know more, care more and do more. By combining the powerful capabilities of SAP HANA Cloud Platform and SAP S/4HANA, together with iOS, the leading and most secure mobile platform for enterprise, we will help deliver live data to people wherever and whenever they choose to work,” added SAP CEO Bill McDermott. “Apple and SAP share a commitment to shaping the future, helping the world run better and improving people’s lives.”

The HANA Cloud Platform SDK will be an iOS exclusive, and there will be SAP Academy for iOS training for developers — both will roll out by the end of this year.

Apple introduced its 12.9-inch iPad Pro during the fall of 2015 with the aim [in part] to win over business and enterprise customers. However, the introduction of that tablet — which starts at $799 — has done little to stop the iPad sales freefall. Apple also recently introduced a 9.7-inch version of the iPad Pro, so perhaps that might be enough to give iPad sales a much-needed adrenaline shot.