What it is: Apple has made deals with various companies to standardize on iOS.
In the early days of the PC, corporations wanted stability so they standardized around the IBM PC which ran MS-DOS. That meant Microsoft became the dominant computer company for the enterprise market for the next few decades. It’s too late for corporations to dump their Windows PCs and switch to Linux or macOS en masse, but the world has moved on beyond PCs to mobile computing defined by smartphones and tablets.
In the smartphone and tablet markets, there are only two viable choices: Android and iOS. The problem with Android is its persistent security concerns and fragmentation among multiple devices running different hardware and older versions of Android. To standardize around Android, a company would really need to standardize around one particular Android device maker such as Samsung. Even then, that still means operating system upgrades may never arrive since Android device makers don’t always allow upgrades to older devices.
While Android may dominate the smartphone market, Android only dominates the low-end tablet market. High-end Android tablets are rare because if you’re going to spend a lot of money buying a tablet, it makes more sense to buy an iPad instead for greater security. That’s why the enterprise market is slowing standardizing around iOS to focus on the iPhone and iPad.
As more corporations standardize around iOS, expect the iPhone and iPad to become the corporate standard. That leaves Windows still clinging to the declining PC market and leaves Android clinging to the low-end consumer market. Once the enterprise market standardizes around iOS, that’s where developers will go and that’s where more corporations will go. The future is iOS in mobile computing.
Apple’s latest deal is with General Electric to standardize around iOS to retrieve data from industrial data. Expect more large companies to standardize around iOS as well, which will simply define iOS as the corporate standard for mobile computing.
Of course, once iOS gets in the corporate market, it will be much easier to accept the Macintosh and Apple Watch as well. In the health industry, the Apple Watch is already becoming the standard over rivals like Android Wear or Fitbit. Apple promises to dominate the enterprise market just like Microsoft did with MS-DOS and Windows.
As more corporations adopt iOS, it’s easy to see how they might also adopt macOS and watchOS as well. Windows may still be the dominant PC operating system in the corporate world, but iOS will dominate the mobile computing market in the corporate world as well. Getting Windows to co-exist with iOS might not be hard, but this will just make tighter integration with macOS more appealing to convince corporations to switch to macOS since a Macintosh can still run Windows.
As Apple continues making deals with corporations to get the iPhone and iPad into the enterprise market, the future is clear. Mobile computing and iOS in particular are the future.
To read about Apple’s latest deal with General Electric to standardize on iOS, click here.