NEC, Hitachi, and 68 others to form iOS Consortium, provide business software and services

A group of 70 Japanese companies including Hitachi and NEC are reportedly partnering to create a general corporation called “iOS Consortium” in order to speed up adoption of Apple products in the enterprise. According to Nikkei, it will be established on June 21st, and aims to jointly develop software, train engineers, and increase the user-friendliness of the enterprise iOS experience. Hitachi and others believe that iOS products can be used in a wide variety of business applications — from customer service at banks to merchandise management at retail stores — and they want to supply the software to make it happen.

Nikkei points out that while Apple has been actively trying to attract consumers in Japan, its enterprise support framework has been comparatively weak. The consortium reportedly plans to ask Apple for information and technology necessary for developing business applications, although no specifics were given. It also aims to reduce the work that each member company needs to spend on development, cut costs across the board, and reduce the time client companies need to wait until they can put new applications into use. Japanese businesses haven’t always been the fastest at implementing new technologies; evinced by the country’s continued reliance on the fax machine. Perhaps the establishment of the consortium can speed up their transition to mobile devices.