Siemens PLM Software, a unit of Siemens, created the Teamcenter Mobility app, which is on sale in the App Store. It works as a client app that connects to a company's Teamcenter software and retrieves data about company products and work processes, said Dave Taylor, senior director of portfolio solutions for the Siemens unit. The PLM unit has 70,000 customers and nearly 7 million licensed seats for its software, making it a global leader.

Since the April launch, there have been a "few thousand" downloads of the app, Taylor said, with many more companies experimenting with how to use it. In the two examples of customers deploying it, one is based in the U.S. and the other in Europe, although Taylor didn't name either.

In one case, a manufacturer has provided iPads running the Teamcenter Mobility app to technicians who service enormous plant-based machines. They carry the iPads with the app loaded and can consult Teamcenter data to find out information on a particular machine, consult engineering specs or view an installation or maintenance training video, Taylor said.

The advantage to carrying the lightweight iPad, which is connected to the Teamcenter data wirelessly, is that technicians can stay in place on the large machines being serviced, rather than having to climb down a ladder and find a workstation to call up the information, Taylor said.

In the other case, service technicians use the iPad app in the field, checking equipment information over a cellular connection, Taylor said.