[tootie]

They already took a baby step in by acquiring TestFlight. It's a more dev/QA-centric product, but it overlaps with MDM. Google is already in the MDM space for Chrome devices. Apple has already been remarkably successful in the enterprise space despite seemingly never going after it. Vendors like Square are deploying thousands of iPads to retail spaces. I think there's a huge opportunity there.

[giobox]

TestFlight helped solve very real problems iOS developers had back in the day when it came to managing beta testing etc, and the acquisition was clearly developer tools focused for Apple. I don’t think it’s sensible to read too much MDM ambition (if any really) on Apple’s part into that particular acquisition.

MDM is a very “enterprisey” market for Apple specifically, historically they’ve been more than happy to let others fight for the few dollars it typically brings in relative to their giant consumer/hardware businesses. Even Tim Cook has made the argument that letting businesses like IBM handle the enterprise cruft helps keep Apple’s focus on just making great consumer products.

> https://www.recode.net/2014/7/15/11628872/apple-and-ibm-ceos...