Apple, which generated revenue of $171 billion and earnings of $37 billion in fiscal year 2013, is looking for more iPhone and iPad business from enterprise CIOs.
Announcing the fourth quarter results today, Apple CEO Tim Cook emphasized on the device major’s success with enterprises across the world.
Apple iOS, tablets and smartphones are the sought after devices and software for enterprises. Cook cited several examples.
It sold 33.8 million iPhones in Q4 compared to 26.9 million in the year-ago quarter, an increase of 6.9 million or 26 percent.
Apple says nearly 35,000 companies worldwide are building custom apps that address specific workflow improvements with their iPhones and iPad users.
In the U.S., over 14,000 employees of Johnson Controls are using iPhones for work. The company has created in-house apps that have enhanced field technician service delivery and customer communications.
In China, AVIC International, a unit of Aviation Industry of China has equipped 27,000 employees with iPhones to access internally developed apps for office, administrative documentation, approval processes in key business intelligent systems.
Apple sold 14.1 million iPads during the quarter compared to 14 million in the year-ago quarter. Companies around the world are using iPads with custom apps to reinvent their legacy business processes; improving efficiencies across organizations and job sections.
In its latest Mobility Index Report, Good Technology indicated that the iOS platform accounted for 95 percent of enterprise mobile app activations and 72 percent of all mobile device activations in the September quarter while iPad accounted for 90 percent of total tablet activations.
Direct store delivery representatives at Dr Pepper Snapple Group use iPads to facilitate communications and streamline the product delivery process.
East Japan Railway personnel use iPad Minis to stay informed about schedule changes and access conductor manual.
Swedish manufacturer SKS uses a custom iPad app to calculate the life of their ball bearing products saving 10 to 15 minutes per calculation for every engineer several times per day.
Schools around the world continue to adopt iPad to transform teaching and learning in the classroom.
In the U.K. the number of iPads sold to K-12 schools has more than doubled year-over-year and in Latin America; over 70,000 iPads are being used by systemic learner students [ph] across 800 schools to improve their learning experience.
In the U.S., school districts continue to rollout large iPad initiatives to students. The Coachella Valley School District in California is currently distributing over 19,000 iPads to its entire student body.
In South Carolina every one of the Horry County School District’s 10,000 middle school students will receive an iPad this year. These broad deployments are in part driven by the great educational content available on iPad and we’re pleased to report that iBooks textbooks are now available across the U.S., U.K. and Australian national high school curricula.
Future bright
The smartphone category is expected to grow from about 1 billion units per year this year to over 1.7 billion in 2017. Tablet market is growing from about 225 billion units this year to over 400 million in 2017.
Last week, Apple introduced new iPads featuring the A7 chip with 64-bit desktop-class architecture, ultrafast wireless and expanded LTE connectivity.
The new iPad Air is 20 percent thinner and 28 percent lighter than the fourth generation iPad and the iPad Mini with retina display packs all the pixels of the iPad Air into its 7.9 inch display and runs over 475,000 iPad apps available in the app store.
Last week, Apple launched new versions of MacBook Pro with retina display featuring fourth generation Intel core processors, faster graphics, long rate battery life and a more affordable price.
Cumulative app downloads have reached 60 billion and our app developers have now earned 13 billion from sales to the App Store, half of which they’ve earned in the last year.
