Enterprise IT managers will be able to better control the Apple Vision Pro used by its employees, with visionOS 1.1 adding mobile device management to the headset.
Apple Vision Pro [Apple]
The Apple Vision Pro has the potential to be a multi-tasking powerhouse for workers at companies, but it introduces new challenges for IT departments to maintain and lock down. To help that, Apple's introducing mobile device management.
The first beta of visionOS 1.1, now available to test brings the Apple Vision Pro to the Apple Device Management system, allowing IT teams to manage the headset in a similar way to the iPhone, iPad and Mac. This includes simplifying activation of the headset when onboarding employees, reports TechCrunch.
"We're going to bring device management capability into that beta," Apple enterprise worldwide product marketing's Jeremy Butcher told TechCrunch.
"We know that in order to unlock all of [the power of the Apple Vision Pro], businesses are going to want to manage these devices at scale," he continued. "So the good news is we've got a lot of great technology to bring over to Vision Pro in that regard."
The integration includes elements like single sign-on support, identity management, managed Apple IDs, and security features.
Steve Sinclair of Apple's worldwide product marketing team offers that Apple expects enterprise use to be a large part of the overall Apple Vision Pro market, but it would need to connect to existing systems to become a reality.
"We're really focused on making sure that we have the enterprise building blocks that the companies expect for networking support," said Sinclair. "For making sure that we're managing and protecting corporate data with data protection, being able to start with some of the basic blocking and tackling type capabilities."
This could include connections to other third-party services and infrastructure, such as Microsoft Exchange or Google Workspace.
Jamf, which offers services to help manage Apple hardware in the workplace, is optimistic about working with the Apple Vision Pro.
An "exciting opportunity to transform the way employees get work done," Jamf VP of product management Matt Vlasach told the publication the MDM functionality supports "all of the core foundations of an enterprise-grade device, from Secure Enclave to device management to biometric authentication to zero trust networking."