ConfigMgr 2012 SP1: Deploy iOS and Android Apps!

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With all of the excitement surrounding the Beta 1 release of ConfigMgr 2012 SP1, there’s been a fairly big feature that's been rarely spoken about… Deploying iOS/Android apps to ‘un-managed’ devices!

This post wont be a deep dive into creating and deploying iOS/Android apps, it will just take you through the high-level announcements and give you something to start thinking about before SP1 hits RTM.

Firstly, you’ll want to check out the iOS app demo from the presentation made by Brad Anderson at TechEd Europe. The demo shows an iOS device using the Intune service to access and install a custom LOB (Line of Business) application.

https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Europe/2012/KEY01 (1 hour 27 into the video for those playing at home)

Secondly, you’ll want to download and test the Beta 1 release of ConfigMgr 2012 SP1

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34607

NOTE: This is full installation media. You don’t need to build an RTM server and upgrade. You do however, need to install the new WADK separately, otherwise the prereq check will fail.

ConfigMgr 2012 makes the deployment a snap, because all we need to do is add a new Deployment Type to our current applications. This means we can have a user receive the LOB app via MSI if they’re in Windows, and the iOS app if they request it on their iPhone. You can really see the benefit of the new ConfigMgr 2012 App Model when you think about all your users utilizing different devices and different deployment types… it’s really rather exciting.

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The process flow would be:

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In terms of installing the application, the application would be delivered via a pull function. That is, we can’t forcibly install the application on a target iOS device, but instead we make the application Available for our users to install.

The process flow would be:

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Finally, I wanted to add a couple of screenshots – one from the iOS client and one from the ConfigMgr console.

1. Creating a new iOS Deployment Type

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2. Installing the App on an iOS device

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There will be HEAPS more details coming soon… so stay tuned!

Matt