Apple Online Store“You won’t find many businesses with a more complex, security-conscious environment than JPMorgan Chase,” Bill Snyder reports for Computerworld. “So when the huge bank decided to deploy iPads in its investment-banking arm — following similar moves by Crédit Suisse and Citigroup — it was more than just a straw in the wind. Apple, long rooted in education, creative endeavors, and (more recently) consumer electronics, is now an enterprise company.”

“The most obvious trend driving the company’s shift, of course, is its smashing success in consumer-oriented electronics,” Snyder reports. “Because so many businesspeople use iPhones and now iPads, IT departments have been forced to accommodate them at work …We’ve clearly reached a tipping point. The JPMorgan deployment, revealed by Bloomberg News in late November, is a major indicator of that shift… Other financial service giants moving toward deployment of Apple products include Morgan Stanley, Crédit Suisse Group, Citigroup, and Bank of America. At some of those companies, the iPad displaces the BlackBerry, the iconic device of frantic-fingered traders and bankers. Apple’s gain is very much a loss for Research in Motion.”

Snyder reports, “The shift goes well beyond financial services. Consider the experience of RehabCare, a publicly traded company that employs 19,000 workers and operates 35 acute care hospitals and rehab facilities… The company is developing critical iOS apps for some 8,000 iPod Touches, 700 iPhones, and 120 iPads. All tallied, three iOS apps will touch every facet of RehabCare’s business, from improving patient care to winning new business.”

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