Apple and Deloitte & Touche Form Enterprise Next Service
September 28 2016 - 3:00PM
Dow Jones News
Apple Inc. is turning to consulting firm Deloitte & Touche
LLP to boost sales of its mobile devices inside businesses.
The two companies said Wednesday they had formed a service
called Enterprise Next, through which 5,000 Deloitte consultants
will advise clients in a range of industries on using Apple
devices.
"Enterprises need trusted advisers," said Tim Cook, Apple's
chief executive, in an interview Wednesday.
The deal follows others Apple has struck in the past two years
with International Business Machines Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and
SAP SE, part of an effort to give Apple devices a more central role
in American corporate life.
Deloitte workers already use more than 100,000 Apple phones and
tablets and the company has built 75 customized apps for these
devices, the company said.
After years of breakneck growth, sales of Apple devices have
stumbled recently, but Apple views business customers as a fast
growing market. Last year, Mr. Cook said that corporate purchases
accounted for $25 billion of Apple's revenue and were growing at
40%. He reiterated those numbers on Wednesday.
The latest version of Apple's iOS mobile-operating system,
released earlier this month, incorporate several new elements
designed specifically for business customers, Mr. Cook said. Apple
has, for example, worked with Cisco to speed up apps on corporate
networks and improved integration with Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange
email servers, the company said.
Corporate users are increasingly using mobile devices as
replacements for personal computers because they allow workers to
access information and make decisions more quickly, Mr. Cook said.
"The desktop era is fading fast," he said.
IPhones are widespread in corporate offices, but much of Apple's
push into business revolves around its iPad tablet. IPad unit sales
have fallen for 10 consecutive quarters, though revenue rose in the
most recent quarter because of increased sales of the pricier iPad
Pro model.
Business sales are important for Apple's growth. "The consumer
smartphone market is becoming increasingly saturated," said Jan
Dawson, chief analyst with Jackdaw Research. "That means that it's
more important to find growth in other places."
Write to Robert McMillan at Robert.Mcmillan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 28, 2016 14:45 ET (18:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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