Apple posts job for Verizon iPad System Engineer

Apple today posted a job listing for a Verizon iPad Systems Engineer that confirmed both a deeper connection to Verizon and to enterprise sales. The position is targeted at integrating the iPad with Verizon's business customers and will depend on knowing the tablet's corporate support, such as Exchange syncing and VPN access. The hire would "develop confidence" in using iPads for work and would talk to every level of a company, the listing said.

The position doesn't indicate any hardware strategies for Apple directly, but it hints that the company is currently happy with its early Verizon iPad relationship. Its current solution is limited to Wi-Fi iPads bundled with MiFi routers, but a continued relationship would be more likely to involve versions with 3G or 4G built-in. A version with native cellular support has so far been limited to uncorroborated rumors, but Apple has typically favored integration when it can. Whether or not this would involve a distinct EVDO version or a world version with a universal modem, such as Qualcomm's Gobi chipset, is still uncertain.

The company has been making furtherpushes into the enterprise with the iPad and has been using it partly as an inroad into workplaces that were previously secure territory for RIM. By shipping the iPad nearly a year before the BlackBerry PlayBook, Apple successfully landed a JPMorgan pilot project before RIM could make an offer and has had significant adoption in half of the Fortune 100. Hiring efforts have been deliberate in recent months and have included poaching RIM staff to build out its enterprise sales. [via 9to5]

By Electronista Staff

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enterprise, Verizon, networking, BlackBerry, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Novatel, Gobi, Apple, MiFi, iPad, PlayBook