IBM today announced that it has released its 100th MobileFirst for iOS app, fulfilling its goal set in partnership with Apple. The made-for-business apps are used by enterprise customers across 14 industries and 65 individual professions, including wealth advisors, flight attendants, first responders, nurses, retail buyers and more.

MobileFirst for iOS apps include Advisor Alerts, Asset Care, Hospital RN, Passenger+, Sales Assist, Sales Consult, Train Tickets, Traveler Care and dozens others, used by clients such as Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Air Canada, AXA, Bosch, Coca-Cola Amatil, Japan Post, Rimac, SAS and Vodafone Netherlands.

MobileFirst-iOS
IBM also said it is developing MobileFirst for iOS apps for iPad Pro, which will take advantage of the 12.9-inch tablet's expanded power, performance, larger screen size and iOS 9 multitasking features. Apple Pencil's precision and functionality will enable enterprise users to design and layout a room, log transactions or annotate maintenance logs.

Apple and IBM announced an enterprise partnership in 2014, released the first ten MobileFirst for iOS apps at yearend and have launched new apps periodically since. MobileFirst for iOS apps are designed in a secure environment, and can easily be deployed, managed and upgraded through IBM cloud services.

Apple and IBM list all of the MobileFirst for iOS apps on their websites.

Top Rated Comments

nagromme Avatar
121 months ago
Based on the short list those do not look like any apps that would appear as enterprise apps. More like niche type apps that could be used by business users (or consumer alike).
You missed some of the short list—but also the full list. (And "enterprise" does not mean "non-niche"—often the reverse, in fact.)

As limited as this portfolio of 100 apps may seem, remember, it has been 16 months! I say, not half bad for starters. Some of the 100 will become big successes, some will not. Inevitable.

More and longer case studies will come, but it takes time. For now, these will have to do:

http://www.ibm.com/mobilefirst/us/en/mobile-case-studies/
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Fzang Avatar
121 months ago
These enterprise apps look damn sexy at that.

Too many professional apps run with the philosophy "if it works, and the GUI sucks in every possible way... It works and the GUI isn't relevant". Especially in natural science there's an overweight of "while I code this steaming turd of Java and Python on my Linux machine".
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jayducharme Avatar
121 months ago
The made-for-business apps are used by enterprise customers across 14 industries and 65 individual professions
While that's admirable considering Apple's past difficulties in getting enterprise adoption, the statistic has no context. How does this stack up to the usage of MS or Unix in those industries and professions? It's hard to tell from this if Apple is making significant inroads with the adoption of their ecosystem, or whether they're still just an outlier.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
2457282 Avatar
121 months ago
While that's admirable considering Apple's past difficulties in getting enterprise adoption, the statistic has no context. How does this stack up to the usage of MS or Unix in those industries and professions? It's hard to tell from this if Apple is making significant inroads with the adoption of their ecosystem, or whether they're still just an outlier.
Agreed. I would like to know how many of those 100 apps are actually deployed. In how many businesses. With how many total users. I would like to see an actual use case or case study of these apps helping an organization optimize their productivity. Until then this has no context. For all we know they wrote all these apps and they just sit there with zero usage.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Only Mortal Avatar
121 months ago

I worked for IBM for many years and can say they have a VERY jaded past with application software. They are not Oracle, Salesforce, Infor, Microsoft, etc.. Their success in software has largely been systems software, not applications. They get into and out of applications spaces so frequently that most businesses would be very hesitant to invest heavily, because they've bailed out of markets many times.
As one of the former devs on ViaVoice for OSX you're right but the Mac team was very conscious about UI. I spent lots of time making the preferences look like the Apple System Prefs and the ViaVoice floating window work well with its drawer.

To be honest, we were all Mac heads who just happened to be in Florida :-)
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Zirel Avatar
121 months ago
But, but there's no pro apps for the iPad.
"It can't run PhotoShop, business have no use for it, buy the Microsoft one"

The Verge
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
macbook pro blue green

When Will Apple Release the M5 MacBook Pro?

Wednesday March 26, 2025 4:53 pm PDT by
Apple regularly refreshes the MacBook Pro models, and a new version that uses M5 series chips is in the works. Apple just finished refreshing most of the Mac lineup with M4 chips, and now it's time for the M5. Rumors suggest that we could see the first M5 MacBook Pro models this fall. Design There have been no rumors of a design update for the M5 MacBook Pro models that are coming this...
Apple Lumon Terminal Pro

Apple's Mac Site Features Fictional 'Lumon Terminal Pro'

Wednesday March 26, 2025 12:19 pm PDT by
Apple is going all out with promotions for the popular Severance Apple TV+ show today, and as of right now, you'll find a new "Lumon Terminal Pro" listed on Apple's Mac site. The Lumon Terminal Pro is designed to look similar to the machines that Severance employees like Mark S. and Helly R. use for macrodata refinement. The Terminal features a blue keyboard, a small display with wide...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...
Generic iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Coming Soon With These New Features for Your iPhone

Tuesday March 25, 2025 6:45 am PDT by
Apple is expected to release iOS 18.4 to the general public as soon as next week, following more than a month of beta testing. Apple's website says some iOS 18.4 features will be released in "early April," so the update should be out as early as Tuesday, April 1. Apple this week seeded the iOS 18.4 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, barring the discovery of any...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Supports 8K Video Recording, Suggests Leaker [Updated]

Wednesday March 26, 2025 4:06 am PDT by
Update 7:25 pm: Based on comments from our forums, it appears the original Weibo post may have been mistranslated and "8K" actually refers to the high price of the device rather than 8K video recording capabilities. The iPhone 16 Pro currently starts at 7,999 yuan in China. Our original article follows below. Apple's forthcoming iPhone 17 Pro models are capable of shooting 8K video, up...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

'iPhone Fold' to Feature Metallic Glass Hinge That Resists Deformation

Thursday March 27, 2025 4:21 am PDT by
Last week, we covered a report claiming that Apple's book-style foldable iPhone (or "iPhone Fold," as we are provisionally calling it here) will use liquid metal hinges to improve durability and help minimize screen creasing. Today, a Chinese leaker provided more details on the properties of this hinge material that help to clarify why Apple chose it for its first foldable device. According...
iOS 18 4 Ambient Music Control Center

How to Use iOS 18.4's New Ambient Music Feature in Control Center

Thursday March 27, 2025 7:45 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 18.4 update for the iPhone adds an Ambient Music feature to Control Center. Below, we take a closer look at how it works. iOS 18.4 is currently in beta, so the Ambient Music feature is not widely available yet. The update will likely be released to the general public next week. To use the feature on iOS 18.4, open Control Center and tap on the plus sign in the top-left...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock

Gurman: Jon Prosser's iOS 19 Mockups 'Aren't Representative' of Redesign

Tuesday March 25, 2025 4:47 pm PDT by
The iOS 19 mockup images that leaker Jon Prosser shared today are not representative of the actual iOS 19 design, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said on social media. According to Gurman, the images that are "floating around" are based on "very old builds" or "vague descriptions," and are lacking key features. Gurman says that we can "expect more from Apple in June." Gurman made the same comment ...