Will iOS 7 solidify Apple's position in the enterprise?

Enhanced security, streamlined MDM and progress with NFC makes Apple's new platform more tempting than ever

Apple's iOS 7 reveal at WWDC stayed typically consumer-focused, though lurking beneath the reiterated "Designed by Apple in California" simplicity and accessibility, there are a number of new features that arguably make Apple a stronger enterprise contender than ever.

Tucked away in Apple's iOS 7 product pages is the statement, "iOS 7 includes many new features designed to make it easier for businesses to put iOS devices in the hands of employees".

It goes on to cite "better protection of work and personal data", "management of app licenses", a "seamless" enrolment in mobile device management solutions, wireless app configuration, single sign-on support and data protection for third-party apps by default.

Apple also mentioned notification synching, call and message blocking and integration with Chinese microblogging platform Tencent Weibo, which, while perhaps not as significant as the featured deep integration with Flickr and Vimeo, gives a more international flavour to iOS 7 seeing as users of Weibo are almost exclusively Chinese language writers.

While MDM (mobile device management) is becoming less and less of a problem for iOS devices as integration improves, there are still issues with the way iOS devices handle communications with MDM software. With all forms of communication largely locked down, MDM managers have had to rely on Apple's Push Notification Service [APNS], which, in rare moments of downtime, has been known to cause havoc. While it's so far unknown whether Apple's improved approach to MDM will cover this, it seems likely a more streamlined solution will be involved.

Overall, it's the security improvements that will consolidate Apple's hold over the enterprise.

The existing Find My iPhone app now includes an activation lock, which allows users to wipe the device remotely in the style of BlackBerry's tried and tested feature. However, because it's tied with an iCloud account, the password to that service will be required to make the phone more useful than a particularly shiny housebrick after a theft.

While much has been made of the Pentagon's adoption of BlackBerry and Samsung handsets as officially security-cleared devices, the crucial difference between Samsung and other Android platform is the presence of KNOX - a bespoke Samsung security creation which, unless it's present, makes a stock Android build a massive security risk.

So if Apple has already been a fair choice for secure businesses ahead of its closest rival, the company actually deciding to focus on enterprise for iOS 7 could make the platform a virtual no-brainer for a great many enterprise mobility solutions, particularly as BlackBerry 10, with its finicky server-side software requirements and enduringly unpopular interface, continues to straggle in third place.

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Will iOS 7 solidify Apple's position in the enterprise?

Enhanced security, streamlined MDM and progress with NFC makes Apple's new platform more tempting than ever

The promised "default" data protection in third party apps could also be an important choice, as Android continues to place security squarely in the hands of developers, with camera, contact book and wider memory access for the app still coming, bizarrely, as standard with far too many apps that don't actually require it.

There were also encouraging movements on NFC and Passbook, with Tim Cook noting that Apple now has 575 million active credit card accounts in iTunes and the App Store, which equates to the largest collection in one store on the whole internet.

With a better-integrated Passbook that Apple showed working with barcodes (strangely omitted from the iOS 6 build), it's not hard to make the leap of logic for both a robust payments system for many transactions beyond the App Store to appear, and with it a reliable method of storing tickets, tokens and passes within Passbook.

Tapping in and out of the office, buying and charging rail tickets to company accounts and all manner of other enterprise-friendly transactions could thus lie in the near future, all within an Apple mobile ecosystem that promises to be more secure than ever.

Added to all this, at the end of the day, an iOS UI that was starting to look distinctly long in the tooth next to the newest Android builds has now caught up, with proper multitasking window displays, more refined quick-access menus to toggle Wi-Fi or other data connections, and better facilities to check incoming emails and tweets arriving on the phone.

While consumers may question whether Apple has truly innovated in the time-honoured Jobsian way with an iOS 7 that, welcome removal of skeuomorphism aside, seems curiously workmanlike, this could be the Apple mobile build that seals the deal with the enterprise.