Apple, GE Partner to Revolutionize Industrial Technology

Apple and GE have announced a deep enterprise partnership that will bring about a set of developmental tools, data insights and ecosystem standardization.

The two companies will begin building developer toolsets and creating apps with Apple’s design and understanding of iOS, TechCrunch reported. But Apple will also begin recommending GE’s Predix automation platform to its industrial customers, and GE will use iOS and macOS devices across its 330,00-strong employee workforce.

The Predix platform is a cloud-based service that aids industrial customers in tracking the health of GE equipment — from jet engines to robotic assembly equipment. Apple and GE have already announced a new software development kit (SDK) for the platform that will allow both GE and third-party developers to build native iOS apps on top of the existing Predix platform.

Indeed, this is a level of cooperation we haven’t seen in an Apple partnership before. And it’ll result in the Predix platform being able to use the full extent of Apple’s operating systems and hardware. GE already had plans to modernize its infrastructure by expanding its “Internet of Things” with cloud servers and an app store. Now, Apple’s iOS will give the company a simple, seamless platform to build off of.

“GE is an ideal partner with a rich history of innovation across the industrial world in areas like aviation, manufacturing, health and energy,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said of the partnership. “Together, Apple and GE are fundamentally changing how the industrial world works.”

Susan Prescott, Apple’s VP for apps, markets and services, gave TechCrunch some more specific examples. A technician could use their iPhone’s camera to take a thermal image of a piece of equipment, she contends. If they diagnose a problem, they can quickly flag an issue and push out critical information to nearby workers using iOS’s Location Services.

“Now employees can make better informed decisions through the native capabilities of the apps right at their fingertips,” Prescott said.