Filip Novotny Apple and IBM announced this week unique agreement on mutual cooperation. A pair of companies, which at the beginning of the modern technology boom could be described as arch-enemies, wants to improve its position in the corporate sphere with this step.
Given the peculiar history between Apple and IBM, the current collaboration may seem somewhat surprising. The second mentioned company became the target of sharp criticism from the apple company in the 1984s, especially through the notorious "XNUMX" advertisement. After thirty years, however, everything seems to have been forgotten and the current state of the market calls for an unprecedented form of cooperation.
The deal is unusual for Apple in particular - the iPhone maker usually tries to operate independently as much as possible and doesn't like to rely on third parties. Even more so when it comes to a company of such size and a former rival. Why did Apple decide to take this step? The Californian company tried to shed light on the unusual agreement immediately after its announcement through a press release.
"Using the strengths of our two companies, we will transform the mobile side of the corporate sphere through a new generation of business applications," explains the official announcement. "We will bring IBM's data and analytics capabilities to the iPhone and iPad," adds Apple. The Californian company also lists the individual advantages that the unique agreement should bring to the pair of companies:
- The next generation of more than a hundred enterprise solutions for specific markets, including native applications developed completely for iPhone and iPad.
- Unique IBM cloud services optimized for iOS, including device management, security and mobile integration.
- New AppleCare service and support tailored to the needs of the business world.
- New service packages from IBM for device activation, provisioning and management.
Apple is planning to deploy software solutions developed specifically for individual business sectors, such as retail, healthcare, banking, telecommunications or transport. The first of these services should appear for the first time in the fall of this year, and the rest in the course of next year. Along with this, businesses will also see the customization of AppleCare, which will provide round-the-clock technical support from both Apple and IBM teams.
All in all, both mentioned companies will gain a better position in the corporate market, which has always been important for IBM and represents a potentially very profitable opportunity for Apple, through mutual cooperation. With this step, the apple company will solve a not quite ideal situation in the business sphere, which, according to many IT experts, does not pay enough attention.
Although more than 97% of Fortune 500 companies already use iOS devices, even according to Tim Cook himself, it does not have the best position in the enterprise industry. “Mobile has made very little inroads into these companies – and the commercial industry in general –,” said v conversation pros CNBC. The reality is that we can find iPhones and iPads in the high ranks of large companies, but the deployment of these devices within thousands of units is rather an exception.
To date, Apple has not paid much attention to the requirements of the IT departments of large enterprises, which differ in many ways from the needs of ordinary users. Thus, iOS devices could find their way into corporations, but from a technical point of view, it was necessary to rely on provisional or incomplete applications and services. "Apple never directly said, 'We're giving up on businesses,' but somehow that's how people felt," analyst Roger Kay said in a message server Macworld. This situation should be changed in the future by the agreement with IBM, which will allow the corporate giant much greater access to the system than it has had so far through the standard developer API. The result will be better native apps for both iPhone and iPad.
[youtube id=”2zfqw8nhUwA” width=”620″ height=”350″]
IBM will also benefit from the deal in several ways. First, it will be an opportunity to resell Apple products to businesses and offer them new, native applications. Secondly, also a certain "revival" of a perhaps somewhat stale brand, through a connection with an extremely successful consumer electronics brand. Last but not least, we must not forget the nature of the agreement that IBM guarantees exclusivity. It cannot happen that Apple would announce a similar collaboration with, for example, Hewlett-Packard in a few weeks.
For both Apple and IBM, the unprecedented cooperation agreement will bring several very interesting advantages. Apple has the potential in the coming months to radically improve its competitiveness in the corporate sphere and the popularity of IT departments of large enterprises, without the need for major changes in its corporate philosophy. All the hard work will be left to IBM, which for a change will get a new source of income and the necessary revival of the brand.
The only ones who can benefit from this move are competing device manufacturers and developers of business services, such as Microsoft or BlackBerry. These two companies are trying to occupy (or keep) the largest possible piece of the corporate sector, and the Apple-IBM agreement is currently the last thing they could need on their way to success.
I would like to point out that Apple and IBM already worked very closely for a long time (1991-2002) in the field of PowerPC processors - at least the G3 and G5 processors were manufactured for Apple by IBM (the G4 was manufactured by Motorola). So the claim about the end of 30 years of animosity between IBM and Apple (paragraph 2) is not true at all.
I think that's only good... A couple of very good applications for the business sector, which will be optimized for the current iOS (iOS 8 in the fall), will not hurt at all. I was wondering why one of the best and most reliable (and unfortunately also the most expensive) phones / tablets has long since become more of an enterprise device to ease the work of hard-working businessmen (with a bit of exaggeration and irony). However, the tablets and partly the phones were supposed to be for that...