Apple and GE have formed a partnership to develop industrial level apps to enhance productivity. Both the companies will work jointly to make it easier to develop apps that can track industrial machines, like jet engines, and power plants on iOS devices.
Apple and GE have announced an iOS software development kit (SDK) for GE’s Predix platform. It must be noted that the SDK will allow external developers, as well as those within GE to develop apps based on the Predix platform by making full use of Apple’s ecosystem, be it iBeacons or augmented reality. The Predix SDK will be released on October 26.
The SDK will help the developers to smoothly integrate Apple iOS with Predix, GE’s cloud-based software. GE’s Predix connects industrial machines like jet engines, power plants etc., with the data centers. This helps in analyzing the data from the machines to come out with meaningful information like the failure rate and suggestions to make the operation more cost-effective, notes Reuters.
Now, with help from Apple, more data and information from Predix will be made available to managers at the factories and power plants, said GE Digital’s executive vice president of global ecosystem and channels, Kevin Ichhpurani. Giving an example, Ichhpurani said a manager might be planning for a scheduled maintenance of a machine, but is not sure of the time to take it off. With the help of data from the Predix software along with the notes and photographs from an iPad at the site, the manager can make an informed decision, Ichhpurani told Reuters.
Further, Susan Prescott, VP for apps, markets and services at Apple, explains, “A technician can now use the iPhone’s built-in camera to capture a thermal image of a piece of equipment to diagnose an issue or iBeacons and built-in location services can push critical information to a nearby worker’s iPhone or iPad in real time to help quickly flag an issue.”
In addition, Apple will also promote the GE Predix platform among its industrial customers. GE, on the other hand, will standardize it on the iPhone and iPad along with giving Mac a choice to its global workforce of over 330,000 employees.
Apple for a long time has been focusing on the enterprise sector to push the sales of the iPad. Tim Cook has said that though almost all Fortune 500 companies are testing the use of iPads in the workplace, there is much more scope for iPads at each company. Possibly this is what the company will be hoping from GE.
Over the past few years, Apple has forged several enterprise level partnerships with software firms like Deloitte, Cisco Systems, Accenture, SAP and International Business Machines, but the level of cooperation seen in the deal with GE has not been seen before. Referring to GE as an “ideal” partner, Cook said, “Together, Apple and GE are fundamentally changing how the industrial world works by combining GE’s Predix platform with the power and simplicity of iPhone and iPad.”
At 10:47 a.m. Eastern, Apple shares were down 0.14% at $160.25.Year to date, the stock is up over 38%, while in the last three-months, it is up almost 7%.
