Apple & IBM Release 8 New ‘MobileFirst’ Apps

Last July, Apple and IBM began collaborating to develop a series of new iOS apps (called MobileFirst) targeted towards users in the business industry. They released the first of these apps last December, unveiling ten apps spanning several industries, from travel and transportation to retail, banking, and telecommunications.

Just yesterday, the partnership released eight new iOS apps, including several focused on healthcare, industrial products, travel and transportation, retail, and insurance. The release of these apps brings the MobileFirst total to 22 apps spanning 10 different industries.

Four of the apps released yesterday focus on the healthcare field. Hospital RN, Hospital Lead, Hospital Tech, and Home RN are designed specifically for staff nurses, charge nurses, nurse technicians, and outpatient nurses respectively. The apps provide a range of functions, from providing quick and easy access to patient data, to creating prioritized task lists, to simplifying complex tasks such as patient discharge.

The remaining four apps cover a variety of fields. The industrial products field received a new app called Rapid Handover, which provides a user-friendly interface that documents and shares important information with incoming crew members. Ancillary Scale was launched for the travel and transportation sector, which allows flight attendants to sell seat upgrades, food and beverages, and duty-free merchandise in-flight with a credit card or using Apple Pay. The retail industry sees the release of Order Commit, which helps retailers plan product assortment based on market data. Finally, Risk Inspect was released for the insurance industry, making “it easy for risk inspectors to give underwriters accurate, in-depth information” according to Apple’s website. The app allows inspectors to use the camera on their phone or tablet to capture photos and video of job sites, and quickly access history and a variety of data on the job site.

The release of these new apps is very exciting for workers in the relevant fields, and with the partnership expecting to yield a total of 100 apps in a variety of different industries, workers in almost any business can expect an app to make their work easier and more efficient.

For more in-depth information on each MobileFirst app, take a look at the MobilFirst page on Apple’s website.