Not too long ago, Delta Airlines ditched Microsoft products in favor of iPads and iPhone. In another blow to Microsoft, Apple and General Electric announced a partnership that will see it roll out Apple devices to its workforce. The industrial giant will work with the Cupertino giant to bring Predix, GE’s industrial Internet of Things (IoT) platform, to iPhone and iPad.
With respect to the deal, John Flannery, Chairman and CEO of GE, said:
“The partnership between Apple and GE is providing developers with the tools to make their own powerful industrial IoT apps. Our customers increasingly need to arm their workforces through mobility. Working together, GE and Apple are giving industrial companies access to powerful apps that help them tap into the predictive data and analytics of Predix right on their iPhone or iPad.”
The Predix SDK for iOS will be available for developers on October 26th giving them the ability to create apps which will run on iOS so the employees can take full advantage of the industrial analytics from GE"s platform. This will improve the productivity of the workforce by giving them more insights about the performance of their equipment right on their iOS devices.
For instance, an app could notify workers about issues concerning the equipment under their operational care and they will be able to work with remote teams using their iPhone/iPad and perform instant inspections and repairs. As a result, it can end up cutting costs for the company and minimizing downtime as remote teams will be able to solve issues without visiting the site.
General Electric will not only standardize on iPhone and iPad for mobile devices but will also promote a switch from Windows PCs to Macs to more than 330,000 employees.
Image via GE
