Apple’s iPad sales are down 23% from this time last year, but the future is still bright for the popular tablet. At least according to Apple CFO Luca Maestri, who sounds hopeful on an April 27th quarterly earnings conference call. The iPad may soon gain more popularity in the workplace, as Apple has begun working with outside companies Box, DocuSign, and ServiceMax to build more business aps for the iPad.
These signify strategic partnerships that will allow these companies to provide crucial input on the creation of new iPad apps. It is safe to assume that this collaboration will also have a positive effect on the businesses participating with Apple.
DocuSign, led by CEO Keith Krach, is the world’s leader in secure e-signatures and Digital Transaction Management services for facilitating electronic exchanges of contracts and signed documents. Box is an online file sharing and personal cloud content management service for businesses, headed by CEO Aaron Levie. ServiceMax, headed by CEO David Yarnold, is a private company and a provider of field service management solutions for technicians.
This collaboration should be fruitful for all companies and products involved. “Innovation in IT is driving innovation in business, and nowhere is this more apparent than in enterprise adoption of iPhones and iPads, which are spurring all-new mobile use cases across verticals like healthcare, retail and financial services. We couldn’t be more excited to power the next phase of business transformation with Apple, the company that ignited the post-PC revolution,” Box’s Levie told Business Insider in an email.
It is surprising that iPad sales would suffer so much, especially due to the historically intense popularity of the iPad compared to other tablets. In fact, Maestri cited a study that found that 77% of all businesses thinking about purchasing tablets are mainly considering iPads. Getting feedback directly from businesses will, hopefully for Apple, result in an increase of iPad sales and happier business customers.
