Apple Inc. and General Electric Co., two companies that have vastly different business priorities most of the time, are joining forces in the mobile market.

With a new partnership announced this morning, the two companies will collaborate on targeting professionals in the industrial sector who use iOS devices for their work. The alliance revolves around Predix, the cloud platform that GE has developed to help organizations analyze sensor data from physical assets such as manufacturing equipment. According to the company, this information can be employed for everything from usage tracking to predicting technical problems in advance.

One of the first fruits of GE’s partnership with Apple is a software development kit for Predix that will launch Oct. 26. The SDK is designed to facilitate the creation of apps that make the platform’s analytics capabilities accessible from iPhones and iPads.

GE will be spearheading the development push. With backing from Apple, the industrial giant plans to develop Predix apps both for internal use and for customers.

The first product of the effort is a tool called Asset Performance Management Cases that aims to help technicians keep an eye on the health of industrial equipment. GE’s app lineup could grow to be quite large over time: The company serves customers in a wide range of industries, including aviation, manufacturing, healthcare and energy.

On top of powering GE’s apps, the SDK will also enable customers to build their own custom software. Outside developers could potentially use the toolkit as well to create new offerings for Predix.

Topping off today’s partnership announcement is a planned go-to-market collaboration. Apple will promote Prefix to organizations and developers that use iOS, while GE plans to “standardize” on the mobile giant’s handsets internally. The effort will also see the industrial giant encourage personnel to adopt Macs for their work.  

GE is the latest in a growing number of companies that have allied with Apple to better target the mobile market. Previously, consulting giants Accenture PLC teamed up with the iPhone maker to provide iOS development services for enterprises. Deloitte Ltd., IBM Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. maintain partnerships with Apple as well.

In GE’s case, the alliance appears to be part of a broader strategic shift. In August, anonymous insiders said that Chief Executive Officer John Flannery is considering to forge new partnerships as a way of widening Predix adoption.

Image: GE