At a conference in London, Canalyst senior analyst Tim Shepherd discussed what he called the “appification” of enterprise software. “Enterprise app stores are really starting to come through, and is a reality for what CIOs are now looking at when deploying custom apps for their employees,” said Shepherd. He added that these new stores present an opportunity for the enterprise application development industry.
Shepherd also believes enterprise app stores offer opportunity for Apple. “Clearly with the Volume Purchasing Program, Apple has been trying to work with selected partners. But I expect to Apple to move in the direction of offering a custom App Store for enterprise,” he said. “On one hand that would allow enterprise to upload custom app, while employees would also be able to download their own consumer apps for the App Store.”
