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Apple Mobile Devices Cleared For Use On US Military Networks
puddingebola writes with this excerpt from a Bloomberg report: "The Pentagon cleared Apple Inc. (AAPL) devices for use on its networks, setting the stage for the maker of iPhones and iPads to compete with Samsung Electronics Co. and BlackBerry for military sales. The Defense Department said in a statement [Friday] that it has approved the use of Cupertino, California-based Apple's products running a version of the iOS 6 mobile platform. The decision eventually may spur a three-way fight for a market long dominated by Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry.'" Also, Apple devices are best for uploading viruses to alien craft.
Can you side load easily with it?
Enterprises could always "side load" (bypass the Apple App Store) their own apps on their own devices.
iOS 6 is most likely specified simply because its the current version. To keep things simple. Want onto the network, then be running the current os version. That and the internal developers needs a min iOS target.
This represents a serious change in Apple's direction. They have avoided the business/enterprise market because they haven't been interested in competing in other, existing markets and certainly never wanted to be held to the same standards as the likes of Dell. But now the government/military market? This is a long way from trying to tie everything together with iTunes.
As mentioned before, you could for many years now buy an "Enterprise" developer license, which allows you to make your apps available to any unmodified iOS device without going through Apple's app store. (The license requires you to make sure that apps will _only_ be downloaded to devices belonging to that enterprise). So this license is specifically for enterprises who want to develop apps for their employees.
So now, they will spend millions and more of tax payer money, to create a special store with iOS applications, presumably a special store with Android applications, while still maintaining all of their Blackberry infrastructure.
Um, what? A Enterprise license will cover this scenario and costs $299/yr. It has been place for years.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
This adds many levels of complexity for the infrastructure,and the hiring and training of support personal
for all sorts of devices. Why? What benefit does Pentagon bet from maintaing 3 different platforms
instead of one?
Short term its true, long term its simply stupid. Dependence on a single vendor...whoever they are is simply bad for any business. It keeps the vendors honest (massive cost saving), and better supply chain(another cost saving).
Now whether a closed ecosystem like apple should be considered at all is a different matter.