Developing new apps with luxury brands is just the tip of the iceberg for Apple’s corporate services.
Looking at the consumer-grade market weakness, Apple bets on the corporate market.
September 2, according to Vogue Business Report, Apple partnered with luxury brand Burberry to develop a new chat tool called “R Message,” a retail messaging app for the latter that is currently being tested at Burberry Manchester’s flagship store for later promotion.
Image Source: Vogue Business
“R Message” will provide a lot of convenience for Burberry, Burberry store employees currently use an internal application called R World for inventory management and receive company news, “R Message” will Burberry’s internal system and its customers The applications are connected to allow customers and salespeople to communicate directly, such as in-store employees sending messages directly to selected customers, customers can make appointments, receive personalized product recommendations, and purchase products.
This chat tool “R Message” for Burberry is similar to Apple’s Business Chat feature launched in 2017. Consumers can use Business Chat to talk to corporate customer representatives on iMessage.
Helping companies connect with customers to optimize their personalized experience seems to be a valuable app for other luxury brands and even retailers, but Apple has yet to announce plans to expand the R Message support platform.
Apple has been promoting its applications in the high-end fashion industry. In November 2018, GUCCI parent company Kering announced that it would develop a new application with Apple for use by store employees. Apple insiders said that this cooperation with the Kering Group is Apple’s “Mobility Part” (Mobility Part)Part of the ner program).
The Mobility Partner Program is a project launched by Apple in 2015 to partially boost iPad sales. Prior to this, Apple announced a partnership with IBM to enter the enterprise mobile market, launching a range of applications for enterprise and retail supply chains.
In the case of weak sales in the To C consumer market, overweight the corporate market or another clear path for Apple. With the increase in mobile office demand, the iPad has become Apple’s vanguard in the corporate market.
The research institute IDC data shows that in the second quarter of 2019, China’s tablet PC market shipments were about 5.61 million units, and the commercial market shipped 1.16 million units, accounting for about 20%; IDC predicts that 2020 tablet commercials Market shipments will approach 6.45 million units, an increase of 15.9% year-on-year. In addition, the iPad market share reached 41.4%, ranking first.
Apple’s Q3 earnings report this year shows that compared with the decline in iPhone sales, iPad revenue increased by 8% year-on-year to $5.023 billion. According to Bloomberg News, the upcoming new iPad Pro will use the same “Yuba three-shot” combination as the new iPhone, and the chip will be faster. The entry-level iPad display will reach 10.2 inches in size, replacing the original 9.7-inch iPad.
Foreign media reported that the iPad Pro, which will be launched next year, will also introduce ToF lenses for the first time. Analyst Guo Mingxi also said that the probability of using ToF in the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of next year is over 50%.
The corporate market will be the sales growth point for Apple products including the iPad, and the development of new applications with luxury brands is just the tip of the iceberg for Apple’s corporate services.