Now, when I first heard the news that SAP and Apple were going to partner up, I was a little confused. In my brain, I know that every partnership needs to provide a win-win, otherwise why bother doing it. So I started chatting with my buddy Jeff to see if I could figure out the “Why” of this deal. Now, in my eyes, I clearly see why Apple wants it. Apple already makes one of the most dominant mobile platforms out there. Let’s face it, the number or iPhones, iPads, iWatches etc. is staggering. What Apple hasn’t fully dominated “yet” is the business world. While everyone may have an iPhone, it isn’t always the corporate standard. So often you either have to bring your own device, and fight with IT to support all of the business apps you need to run, or you carry 2 phones. Now, with SAP’s dominance in the business world, it makes a great fit for Apple. They suddenly look like the SAP preferred vendor, so it increases their chances of becoming the corporate standard device. What do they really need to give up? an SDK? some native apps? Of course this is a win for Apple.
Now, where I still struggle is what’s in it for SAP? now, I’m still working my way through the mobility class in OpenSAP, so I might be missing something (and I’d love to hear from anyone that could clarify it). SAP has invested HEAVILY in the whole new UI5, Fiori, Persona’s etc. So they are working to rebrand their tired old look. In the exercises I’ve done for the class, I’ve been able to make my apps work on Apple devices without any issues. I think there are some additional hoops (like needing to be an Apple Developer) to do some of the advanced stuff, and there isn’t an SDK readily offered by Apple, like there is with Android. However, when I read the stories, it sounds like SAP is planning to do more with native apps on Apple. I guess this confuses me because why go to Native when you can do a Hybrid application? And especially when SAP has invested a lot of time and effort into developing this whole platform. While native “might” be better, it is also a lot more effort to design the same thing on multiple platforms. I personally was very impressed with the Hybrid model because now I could develop something once that is responsive, works on the browser, iOS, Android, and Windows.
I’d love to hear your take on the whole thing. Is native really that valuable? Is there something in this for SAP that I’m missing?
Thanks for reading,
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike