Apple reportedly working with more than 40 companies to get iPad into the workplace

With iPad sales slumping, Apple has been working with more than 40 tech companies to make the device a more valuable tool in the workplace.

Apple’s efforts to sell iPads into the enterprise are nothing new, but the company has reportedly now reached out to enterprise-oriented tech companies with experience making things like sales and accounting apps, says a new Wall Street Journal report. Apple helps the companies design the apps, with an eye toward making them run well on iPads.

The WSJ report says the enterprise app initiative is dubbed the “mobility partner program.”

Apple is working with other companies in the same way that it’s been working with IBM, which has already announced numerous apps built with Apple’s help.

But Apple also hopes to learn from the partner companies how to effectively sell the iPad in the enterprise, the report says.

In its Q3 earnings report, Apple said it sold 10.9 million iPads in the quarter, down from 13.2 million in the year-ago quarter. This marked the latest of several quarters of declining iPad sales.