Apple News: Tech Giant And Salesforce Announce Partnership To Incorporate iOS Features Into Apps

A week after launching its newest line of iPhones, Apple announced a new partnership that will make extensive use of some of the features available on its new phones. The tech giant on Monday announced it would join forces with cloud-computing firm Salesforce to help bring features like Siri to Salesforce’s line of mobile enterprise apps.

The partnership will probably not move the needle for the average iPhone user. Salesforce’s product line primarily facilitates customer relationship management (or CRM) for businesses, making apps that help businesses operate efficiently and Apple will likely aid Salesforce to incorporate iOS-exclusive features within those apps.

Salesforce’s press release mentioned Siri Shortcuts and Face ID as features that could be implemented into the main Salesforce app. Siri, Apple’s voice-controlled virtual assistant, will likely be a main focus of the partnership between Apple and Salesforce.

“We’re going to be able to provide the sales rep instant access to things using your voice instead of clicks and going through different apps,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told Reuters. “We’re changing the way people work, and that’s always been at the heart of what Apple is about - changing things for the better.”

A sales rep could potentially use Siri for data entry or customer service. Cook emphasized that voice control is relatively rare for enterprise applications in his interview with Reuters, which suggests that it could be among the motivations for the partnership.

Software developers may see the most benefits from Apple and Salesforce teaming up. As part of the deal, iPhone and iPad app development courses will be added to Salesforce’s educational site, Trailhead. In addition, there will be a Salesforce-specific software developer’s kit (or SDK) optimized for Apple’s programming language.

Apple benefits from customers and businesses using its hardware for more purposes, and partnering with Salesforce gives Apple access to a large share of the CRM market. Salesforce made up nearly 20 percent of CRM market share in 2017, making it the largest provider by a wide margin. It beat out companies like Oracle and Microsoft.

In afternoon trading, shares of Salesforce (CRM) rose by nearly 2 percent, while Apple (AAPL) gained more than 1 percent.