SAP testing 200 PlayBooks, already using 4,000 iPads
updated 08:50 am EDT, Fri April 29, 2011
SAP to test 200 BlackBerry PlayBooks
SAP has given RIM's enterprise hopes for the BlackBerry PlayBook a lift with plans to test 200 for use at work. As part of the trial, they would be used to run the company's HTML5 web apps as well as the Flash code written specifically for Android and PlayBook devices. Workers would be testing them to see how well they would work for enterprise-grade performance management apps.
The firm wasn't willing to predict how well the PlayBook would fare in the test or when it expected the tablet to roll out if successful.
An endorsement from SAP is one of the largest outside of Canada for RIM, which has claimed rollout plans in the "tens of thousands" but relatively few beyond its home country. Apple has been unusually dominant in tablet use for the enterprise and has had the majority of the Fortune 100 either using or testing the iPad, along with an increasing number of the Fortune 500. SAP itself is already using 4,000 iPads.
RIM has pitched the PlayBook as initially for BlackBerry loyalists given its dependence on a nearby phone just to get basic e-mail. While seen as limiting the reach for home users, the issue isn't as severe for corporate use, where the BlackBerry phone is still the dominant platform.
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Apple needs to...
Apple needs (IMHO) to do some work to give corporate customers more of what they want (I don't think companies would even be looking at subjecting themselves to nowhere-near-real-products like the Playbook, if Apple did so). Corporate IT departments want some central control to install/update mobile units like they do with desktops, and corporations need to be able to run custom, proprietary apps.
I assume there are a lot of technical difficulties to doing this (for Apple) - how to do it and protect the system and the rest of us from bad code, malware, etc... I wonder if they could have some kind of sandbox for corporate apps and management software that would allow for installs of proprietary apps into the sandboxed environment. For now, I guess corporations could utilize their web-based applications via VPN and maybe make mobile-friendly versions.