IDC estimates 111.9 million wearable devices will be in use by 2018, so its inevitable employees will drive enterprises adoption of these things, just as they drove enterprise use of iPhones, iPads and other mobile devices. 51 per cent of business leaders “identify wearables as a critical, high, or moderate priority for their organization,” says Forrester Research.

Also read: WWDC: 21 all-new Apple Watch features

To help secure these devices, Good Technology has introduced and updated secure email and collaboration app, Good Work for Apple Watch, which provides secure access to emails and meeting notes.

Productivity and security

To see the way ahead consider the enterprise significance of the latest Apple patents in which it describes a means to share Apple Watch files by shaking hands. It is inevitable these things will be used for all kinds of collaboration in unified communications or SaaS deployments. However, to support such use IT pros will want to implement complete policy control over the device – they have to, if only to satisfy data protection law.

“Enabling enterprise mobility means securing data accessed and used on all devices, whether smartphones, tablets or wearables,” said Christy Wyatt, chairman and CEO of Good Technology, “allowing greater productivity for employees while also providing complete policy controls for IT.” To enable this the company has updated the policy controls it places inside its Secure Mobility Platform for IT.

Among other features IT admins can enable/disable notifications and the Good Work watch app using a Web-based management console. Good also supports the new Apple Watch wrist detection restriction – which should enable enterprises to implement tighter MDM policy.

Intelligent agents

This is only the beginning of the emergence of Apple Watch in the enterprise – huge investments are already being made in this and there is a growing ecosystem of solutions to empower the wearable enterprise. For example, Apple and IBM have begun introducing Apple Watch support to some of their jointly developed MobileFirst for iOS apps. That is by no means the only example of enterprise class Apple Watch solutions.

Many mistake the Apple Watch as an object defined only by its existing features, but that’s a terrible error of judgement. It is important to understand that the impact of these devices is not determined by the features they offer in isolation, but what they offer when used in conjunction with back end systems, as Forrester analyst, J.P. Gownder explains, “Solving business problems depends on linking wearable devices to back-end systems. And the usability of wearables in turn depends upon intelligent agents.”

Digital transformations

These technologies will be critical to the digital transformation of everything Apple is already deeply enmeshed within.

“The market for company-provided wearables will be larger than the consumer market in the next five years,” writes Gownder. “Want proof? In 2012, in the US alone, 7.7 million people worked in healthcare positions that could benefit from wearables, while 3.2 million worked in public safety, and a whopping 13.8 million worked in sales roles. Not all of these professionals will adopt wearables, but their companies have every incentive to deploy wearable technologies and business processes that create positive financial and/or customer service results for customers.”

With iOS already the dominant mobile platform in any serious enterprise and a host of developers active in the space, Apple Watch seems set to seize its time.

What We Expect

The next major update to Apple’s OS X operating system, OS X 10.11, is expected to be previewed this June, at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. We have a limited amount of information on OS X 10.11, but given that OS X 10.10 Yosemite just introduced a major design change, it’s likely OS X 10.11 will continue to offer the same general design, perhaps with under-the-hood improvements and new features.

The new design introduced with OS X YosemiteAccording to rumors, OS X 10.11 will focus heavily on bug fixes, optimization improvements, and security enhancements, much like iOS 9.

Specifically, Apple is rumored to be working on a new kernel-level security system called “rootless” that will help curb malware and protect sensitive data by preventing users from accessing protected files on their Macs.

Apple may also convert many IMAP-based applications like Notes, Reminders, and Calendar to its own iCloud Drive system, improving communication in these apps between devices and increasing security. A “Trusted Wi-Fi” feature may allow Macs and iOS devices to connect to trusted wireless routers with no additional security measures, while non-trusted routers would have a heavily encrypted wireless connection.

There will also be a few new consumer-facing features included in OS X 10.11. The Maps app may be updated with support for transit directions, and there are rumors suggesting the operating system will gain a new default font — San Francisco, the same font used for the Apple Watch. OS X 10.11 may also include a Control Center that was originally a feature rumored for OS X Yosemite. The Control Center would include music controls and other features similar to the Control Center on iOS, like access to Do Not Disturb, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

Potential Name

With OS X 10.9 Mavericks, Apple ceased naming its operating system updates after large cats and instead announced plans to name future updates after major California landmarks.

We don’t know what Apple will choose to call its next operating system update, but the company hastrademarked a long list of possible names that could be used for upcoming OS X updates. Names cover several major landmarks in California, ranging from surfing spots and popular cities to mountains and deserts. There are even a few iconic California animal names throw in, like Condor, Grizzly, and Redtail.

The full list of names: Redwood, Mammoth, California, Big Sur, Pacific, Diablo, Miramar, Rincon, El Cap, Redtail, Condor, Grizzly, Farallon, Tiburon, Monterey, Skyline, Shasta, Sierra, Mojave, Sequoia, Ventura, and Sonoma.

Thus far, we’ve had OS X 10.9 Mavericks and OS X 10.10 Yosemite, one name focusing on a water-based location and another focused on a forest-based location. Apple may be picking names randomly, but it’s also possible the company will alternate between names that relate to water and names that relate to land.

Photo of Monterey, California, one of the potential names for OS X 10.11 or future versions of OS XIf that’s the case, we could potentially get another one of the ocean-oriented names, like Pacific, Monterey, Farallon, or Rincon, but it’s not clear if Apple’s following a specific naming scheme. There’s also the possibility that the company has other secret trademarks or trademarks it has not applied for protection on at the current time, meaning a name not even on the list could be chosen for OS X 10.11.

We’ve polled our forum members to find the names people preferred out of Apple’s trademarked list, and OS X Redwood came in first, followed by OS X Mojave and OS X Sequoia.

Discuss OS X 10.11

We may not know what OS X 10.11 will offer, but that hasn’t stopped our forum members from listing what they’d like to see in the next operating system update.

Many of our forum members have said they’d love to see Apple focus on speed optimizations and bug fixes rather than new features, but some requests include a smarter Spotlight window, Siri integration, a better Dark Mode, and an expansion of the Continuity features first introduced with Yosemite.

Want to share what you’d like to see in OS X 10.11? Join in on the discussion.

Testing

The number of visits we see to MacRumors from Apple IP addresses running pre-release software often gives us hints as to how development is progressing on upcoming updates.

Increasing visits to MacRumors.com from devices running OS X 10.11 from Apple’s networksVisits we’re receiving from devices running OS X 10.11 remain relatively low in the range of dozens per day, but we have seen visits picking up since the start of the new year, suggesting testing is well underway, as it should be as we head toward an initial unveiling and developer seeding in the coming months.

We expect to see the number of visits from machines running OS X 10.11 pick up as we creep closer to June. Apple will likely begin distributing the operating system internally to additional employees in the coming weeks to prepare for a preview at WWDC.

Release Date

Apple previews each new version of OS X and iOS at its Worldwide Developers Conference, so we will likely get our first look at OS X 10.11 on June 8, when the company holds its WWDC keynote event.

After the keynote introduction, developers will be given access to OS X 10.11 for testing purposes, and following an extended beta testing period, OS X 10.11 will most likely see a public release in the fall of 2015. Apple’s been providing public beta testers with new versions of OS X, so testers may receive OS X 10.11 well ahead of a public launch.

Apple is planning to do away with Newsstand, its central app that stores newspaper and magazine subscriptions for users, according to sources who spoke with Re/code. In its place, the company will introduce a new Flipboard-style aggregation experience that will showcase curated lists of articles and content for individual customers. The partners for the new app will include ESPN, The New York Times, Conde Nast and Hearst, with the new app focused on providing “samples” of content.

Since magazines and newspapers were required to be located within the Newsstand app, many of Apple’s partners complained of buried content with the introduction of Newsstand. With the new structure in place, individual magazines and publications will sell their own app experiences within the App Store, allowing companies to push their content directly to a user’s device without having to navigate through Apple’s Newsstand app. While Apple is said to be adjusting its revenue cut for some types of subscription content, the company will reportedly continue to take its traditional 30 percent revenue cut from subscriptions within these services currently available in Newsstand.

MacRumors had previously heard Apple was meeting with publishers about the upcoming discontinuation of Newsstand, but was unable to obtain corroborating information.

Those supporting Apple’s supposed Flipboard-like app will also keep 100 percent of the advertising they each sell within the app. In exchange, Apple will help its partners sell unsold inventory and take a cut of the profit of each sale at a rate that one of its publishing partners detailed as “very favorable.” Although not stated directly, Re/code alludes to the confirmation of the Newsstand rumor happening today during the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

The Apple Watch is coming very soon, with a launch date of April offered by none other than Apple CEO Tim Cook, so understandably, the supply chain is moving to meet initial demand. Apple has ordered between five and six million devices to be produced in preparation for the kick-off of sales, the Wall Street Journal reports today, a figure which puts Apple’s expected demand for its first wearable somewhere close to initial expectations for the original iPad.

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