“The news Apple and IBM have joined forces to deliver a powerful new business approach to the enterprise is the shot heard round the IT world,” Tim Bajarin writes for Tech.pinions. “This global deal, where IBM in essence becomes a VAR (value added reseller) for Apple and includes IBM porting more than 150 of their IT apps and tools exclusively to iOS for use in full native mode, will give IBM more tools in their mobile arsenal as well as provide Apple a stronger foothold in the enterprise — beyond anything they could have ever imagined. Even though Apple’s iPad represents 73% of tablets in the enterprise and the iPhone also has a substantial position in IT, this partnership with IBM helps solidify that iOS is the OS for business tablets and smartphones and gives them a huge edge over their competition.”
“This is not good news for the Android crowd. Google, and especially Samsung, had been on a course to try and get more Android devices into IT. However, this Apple/IBM deal will make that very, very difficult now and, if the deal works as designed, it could pretty much upstage any opportunity Android devices have in any future enterprise programs,” Bajarin writes. “This will also have an impact on Microsoft’s quest to make Win 8 tablets and smartphones the de facto standard in IT. That would have been a tough thing to do even if Apple and IBM had not gotten together, but it will be even more difficult for them to gain a lot of ground with Windows 8 mobile devices in IT now.”
“For Apple, it assures iOS devices aimed at the enterprise will gain more traction and help keep them well ahead of the competition for many years to come,” Bajarin writes. “I suspect Steve Jobs has a big grin on his face up in the sky.”
Much more in the full article – highly recommended as usual – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Thermonuclear. 🙂
Those who underestimate Tim Cook do so at their own peril. – MacDailyNews, February 25, 2013
Google will rue the day they decided to get greedy by working against Apple instead of with them. – MacDailyNews, August 3, 2011
As we have always said, even as many short-sightedly waved (and continue to wave) the white flag, the war is not over. And, yes, we shall prevail… No company is invincible. Not even Microsoft. – MacDailyNews Take, January 10, 2005
Related articles:
Jim Cramer: Apple wins again – July 16, 2014
Apple’s IBM alliance kills Google in the enterprise – July 15, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s memo to employees: IBM deal builds on Apple’s incredible momentum in the enterprise – July 15, 2014
Apple, with IBM, aims to transform and dominate enterprise computing – July 15, 2014
Apple and IBM forge global partnership to transform enterprise mobility – July 15, 2014
Microsoft to begin axing thousands of employees as soon as this week – July 15, 2014
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Wasn’t it IBM that made a 64bit android port? Guess they are going to have to stick with 32bit for a bit longer
Too much focus on how bad this is for the copycats. Focus should be on the products and services being offered by the IBM half of this team and the impact on businesses that buy them. IBM is a heavy hitter, now freed from the challenges of mass production of industrial quality hardware, a challenge Apple has well in hand. This partnership has the tools to change the corporate world and the work-split is such they shouldn’t trip over each other.
“Think”
“Think Different”
How about “Think Big”
Apple realized that once you hook customers on great products, they stay with them for life.
Once students graduate after having use Macs for high school and college, they don’t want to drop back to crap hardware & malware everywhere.
IBM saw the handwriting on the wall with the instant and huge success of iPads which is all that many people need to get or OK information for their average workday.
Smart, extra smart decisions by both Apple and IBM.
iPad just locked in becoming the de facto cash register in most all pos retail outlets. With iBeacon and Touch ID fingerprint security combined with IBM. It’s over. Done. iPhone is the wallet, and the bump in desktop sales because of Handoff integration will be significant.
Looks like IBM just gave Microsoft’s keys to the kingdom to Apple
I guess the crew calling for Tim Cook to get ousted are going to have a rougher time as well.
This is very bad news for MicroSoft. Their cash cow is MS Office. And this partnership will do great damage to that.
Business is about information. Business data is a component of information after it has been compiled to an understandable level. Usually by adding a step or two in the process (often Excel). If IBM can eliminate that step…and convert the data to actionable information, Excel is needed less.
Powerpoint is an overused tool to try and convey some of the information to the masses. Easy access to the information you require could free you from “Death by a thousand PowerPoint slides”.
MS Word. “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Visual communication is now and will continue to be the conduit of choice due to understandability and speed. Word won’t go away but its use will diminish.
Time is money! The faster information can be presented to the decision makers, the more opportunity they will discover. These are some of the issues that soon will face MicroSoft.
Microsoft’s share price doesn’t seem to be impacted at all and in fact it’s flying higher than ever and is in fact getting greater gains than Apple. It doesn’t appear as though MS investors are worried even a little bit about the Apple/IBM alliance. That’s the difference between Apple and Microsoft investors. Apple investors are easily spooked by any sort of competition. Microsoft investors believe Microsoft is so firmly entrenched in the enterprise that nothing with touch them.
Deluded, through brains set in concrete. Time they checked the foundations.
Microsoft shares are gaining because they are laying off thousands, Apple is building value.
I don’t think this deal necessarily damages Office as much as it damages Windows and Windows Mobile devices.
While MDN may highly recommend the article, Bajarin gets one thing absolutely wrong: “There is great irony in this announcement. IBM started the PC revolution…” Apple was shipping personal computers in large quantities and long before IBM even announced (let alone shipped) its first “PC”. Many businesses relied on Apple ][ computers before IBM came in.
Apple has had a “Love-Hate” relationship with IBM since the very early 1980s. Hopefully this will be one of the few joint ventures that actually work out, but there are as many attempts at working together that ultimately failed as there have been true successes.
YES!
In other news, the sky is blue and the sun apparently generates light and heat. Thanks for the click-bait Captain Obvious.
It is a lot more than Thermonuclear. It is a matter-antimatter explosion.
This will immediately divide the enterprise IT departments into two camps.
The old-school MS-certified, Wintel loving, “IT is king” crowd on the one hand, and user-focused, cloud-based, mobile-friendly, “IT is in the service of business needs” guys on the other.
And the Wintel guys will be obsolete long before they reach retirement age if they stick with their Win-only specialty. There’s a ton of them that know nothing but Windows. And I mean NOTHING. Linux, Macs, and iOS are as different to them as a washing machine.
Jobs wanted to go thermonuclear.
I think Cook prefers the slow burn.
It’s like outsourcing, but not. Let Apple be good at doing what it does. IBM does the same. In turn, they promote each other’s stuff. The end (of Microsoft, perhaps).
Even before this, in the past 5 years, Apple’s stock price is up 350%, and MS is up 75%.
The constant good strategic moves Apple is making lately with their new SW development processes, their 64 bit mobile architecture, and now this alliance with IBM to expand the enterprise presence is mind boggling. The scale of what they are doing is gargantuan and beyond most if not all others. IMHO, the path is there for a lot of years of success.
He wrote:
The news Apple and IBM have joined forces to deliver a powerful new business approach to the enterprise is the shot heard round the IT world.
I read:
The news Apple and IBM have joined forces . . . SHOT the IT world.
Oh, how I can dream…
I’m in IT / IM and we have been a Mac friendly outfit for years, pushed and pulled by myself but some others as well. More and more Apple hardware is deployed, the last being 8 Airport Extreme and a Time Capsule.
We still use Windows for a lot, but are seriously looking for alternatives. There is some legacy software we need to run but that will give in too, someday.
We used to have an Xserve and I was not very happy with Apple quoting that brilliant piece of equipment.
Now, with this deal, a different mindset may be the “halo effect” that springs form this.
Quite a lot of people working in ‘the enterprise’, which includes schools, were extremely upset to see the XServe pulled. Maybe it will be revived, if the association with IBM works out.
MY fervent wish is that Apple return to giving attention to OS X Server. I gave up on it as of Mountain Lion Server due to bugs and bugs and bugs. It would be great to see it replacing Windows Server, which could happen if it was brought back to top notch shape again AND enterprise organizations figure out that Windows Server is holding them back and exposing them to security holes. – It could happen! 😀