“Apple and IBM have gotten together to announce a historic partnership that will combine Apple iOS devices and apps with IBM cloud services, big data and analytic capabilities. IBM’s massive enterprise salesforce will also put more than 100 of Big Blue’s vertical market apps, services and software on iPhones and iPads and sell them to enterprises,” Fredric Paul writes for NetworkWorld. “It’s a big deal between two former antagonists that will help cement Apple’s place in the enterprise and give IBM a much-needed mobile boost. It’s also a big challenge to Microsoft’s vision of Windows everywhere.”
“But there’s one critical piece missing from the deal that may tend to undercut the deal’s importance for both Apple and Microsoft. The deal is all about iOS, it makes no mention of the Mac, even as Apple’s traditional computing platform makes inroads into the corporate market,” Paul writes. “For Apple, leaving out the Mac means that this deal is not likely to be anywhere near as transformational as it could have been. While having IBM push iPhones and iPads in the enterprise will no doubt boost sales, the fact is that iOS devices already have a huge lead in the enterprise.”
Paul writes, “At the same time, leaving the Mac out of the IBM/Apple partnership removes the pressure on Microsoft’s core Windows business.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Wrong, wrong, wrong.
The Mac will grow in the enterprise implicitly with iPad/iPhone use due to the halo effect which has just been put on steroids by Apple via iOS 8 + OS X Yosemite Continuity/Handoff.
Suggesting otherwise shows a significant ignorance of Apple’s ecosystem, operating system symbiosis, and history: Non-Mac Apple products drive increased Mac sales.
Even today, much less after the looming releases of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, any personal computer user who uses an iPhone and/or iPad without a Mac is stupid.
Related articles:
Apple+IBM: Winners and losers – July 16, 2014
Cringely on Apple+IBM: Meh – July 16, 2014
Apple: Morphing into a beautiful masterpiece – July 16, 2014
Don’t fall for those who claim Apple’s new deal with IBM isn’t important — it’s huge – July 16, 2014
Apple+IBM take on the enterprise: Beleaguered Blackberry another big loser – July 16, 2014
Apple puts IBM rivalry to rest with paradigm-smashing corporate sales deal – July 16, 2014
Tim Bajarin: Apple-IBM deal is bad news for Google and Microsoft – July 16, 2014
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
The “or something” has never been more justified. Clearly the author is ignorant of apples powerful halo affect. Once you fully engrain one type of device everything else falls into place
Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if Samsung and Google announced a partnership to develop Android applications to query and visualize Big Data on the heels of the Apple/IBM announcement including a claim that they’d been working on it for over a year?
LOL! I wouldn’t put it past them. In fact, I’m expecting it now!
That’s one of the first things I thought of yesterday after reading about the Apple-IBM deal. Copycat deals from all the usual copycats.
And wouldn’t it be shocking if IT departments believed ScamScum and Giggle could actually provide an equivalent product? /s
They’d sell it to unsuspecting management as the best solution and lower cost. And those idiots would take their word for it.
I wonder if he’s read the agreement? Or is he just piggy-backing off of other news reports?
Guy has no clue just watch halo effect!
And yet they fail to understand to see how an iPad can and will replace desktops. In a world trained by Microsoft, it is expected and yet sad. They fail to see the huge sales that will follow as mobility will be key to efficiency in business market.
also, if the companies buying iphones and ipads start writing their own apps they will need a few more macs, at least, for software development, testing and maintenance.
MDN has it right again.
Has anyone else noticed that know one has thought about what you get when Apple’s SIRI uses IBM’s Watson to retrieve answers to verbal questions. Not to worry. When SIRI gets an IQ upgrade, we all will notice.
“Even today, much less after the looming releases of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, any personal computer user who uses an iPhone and/or iPad without a Mac is stupid.”
Not stupid, just oblivious. Apple doesn’t seem to go out of its way to advertise the benefits of an all Apple ecosystem. Pretty stupid on their part.
Damn right, stupid Apple. They must be losing money by the boatload. I expect bankruptcy any day now. They should hire you to fix things. Apple is full of iDiots aren’t they?
I know Apple is far from bankrupt, but there are some pretty cool benefits of an all Apple ecosystem that Apple doesn’t go out of its way to make common knowledge. Why would you say that is?
Troll alert, don’t reply.
OK, in our world here, it is mostly techy and geeks, so we know all about this.
Go ask the non-computer industry person about Yosemite and the benefits. There are plenty of Mac or iPhone users out there that barley scratch the surface of the device’s capability.
So yes, oblivious.
With Yosemite I suspect that will be at the core of advertising for obvious reasons.
We can only hope. There’s been a great deal of integration between the systems, particularly if an Apple TV is in the mix, for a few generations of the operating systems, but that’s been kept a pretty close secret.
Whenever I see a new iPhone or iPad reviewed or compared to an Android device, the iDevice is always spoken of as a standalone device, never as an integral part of a larger system. Understandable since they work fine by themselves, but a huge aspect of their functionality is completely ignored.
Now that Apple is increasing the level of integration and finally making some noise about it, I think a lot of people will be blown away by what we have been enjoying and taking for granted.
“Non-Mac Apple products drive increased Mac sales.”
No they don’t. Most Apple and iPhone owners plug them into Windows computers running iPhones. Despite hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads being sold since 2007, the number of Mac owners is still tiny. The percentage of Mac owners is up, but only because the sales of Wintel machines is DOWN, a fact that has as much to do with the horrors of Windows 8 as it does with anything that Apple is doing.
There is also the financial aspect of it. For a (high income) person to buy an iPad and use his own money to switch to a Mac from a Windows machine is one thing (to the extent that it is happening at all, and it isn’t happening nearly as much as Apple fans claim). But for a corporation to decide to purchase $1500 Macs as opposed to $500 Windows machines for their employees is another. Even for a relatively small company with 1000 employees … that is $1,000,000! And that is why Macs were left out of the deal.
The main reason why iPads are hammering Windows PC sales is because iPads are cheaper than (good) PCs. So consumers are using the iPad to replace their 2nd computer, usually a laptop. They are not – as stated earlier – buying Apple computers and laptops that cost 3 times as much. Corporations are not going to either.
I mean look at the enterprise: what are these people using iPads for? Mostly taking them into meetings or doing other things when they are walking or working in conferences. But individual intensive work done by yourself at a desk where you need a real keyboard, a bigger display, a mouse etc.? They are still using PCs for that, and they are going to keep doing so.
If Apple were to upgrade MacMini, the switchover costs would be such less. The combination of ennergy costs and never having to pay for OS upgrades and Desktop “office software” would make the total cost of ownership a no brainer in favor of the Mac Solution. Even the low end Mac would fullfill many needs with a lower TCOS.
No, not true. A lot of the work done by corporate desktops can be done by tablets. Just try to get IT to get understand this is a massive chore. Mainly the old farts that run the departments are still praising the 90’s, suppressing any change request, and are proud of this – as any employee or new IT person is needing guidance for the aged. Although it is 2014 and they are mostly clueless with their gear securely in reverse, pedal to the floor, and looking vacantly forward.
Bull, an iPad won’t replace a laptop in the Enterprise space. Will never be more than supplemental.
The iPad is for work that can’t be done on a desktop or laptop. That is why the Surface is a failear, it is not mobile. It can’t do anything more than a laptop. IBM sees markets that can use tablets in remote places that need cell and GPS and they already have some of the clients. Windows took the consumer market in the 90’s because it what people used at work. It was not because of being “open” or cheep. The early adaptors of the internet choose MS so they could do work at home. With iPad going into new work enverments, the workers will buy what they work with. It’s a new world.
You really should get out more. Nobody plugs in anything to anything anymore.
I bet windows people do.
Well now they can a Windows retirement strategy.
Replace an old Window machine with a Mac with either Parallels or VMWare.
As Macs become the primary desktop remove Parallels or VMWare from the Macs.
Throw a Windows Bon Voyage (don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out) party!
Name me a quality PC that a corporation would buy with a price tag of $500 that has anything close to any model Mac costing $1500. A $500 PC has about the same stuff in it that Macs had 3-4 years ago, plus the PCs at that price are stripped of useable RAM, HDD space, Graphics power, and number of I/O.
The cost differential of equivalent machines has always been small when the PC is optioned to Mac equivalence. And that small difference is always washed out with the extra cost of virus protection SW alone.
Go buy the bottom end $600 Mac Mini and add a monitor, mouse and keyboard for $150. Load up your PC (one that company would buy, not a kit) with comparable performance and interface options that the mini has and it will be as much or more.
Now add in the cost of the army of PC support people and yearly virus subscriptions. Your $1M has turned into -$1M.
Wow, someone not familiar with the halo effect!
I know you’re touchy about comments regarding your editorial prowess, but the copy contains “importance for both Apple and Microsoft.” It’s IBM, not Microsoft.
Feel free to delete this, I won’t feel bad.
No, the copy is correct. The writer is claiming the decision not to include Macs is undercutting the value to Apple, but benefiting Microsoft because IBM won’t be pushing Macs.
Oh, I see. I just didn’t see this deal being good at all for Microsoft. I don’t see the cowering in fear, but seeing any Apple hardware being legitimized in the enterprise arena must be making at least a few softies a little bit queazy.
Idiot
Why do so many people always define sitting at a desk hacking away at a keyboard as doing “real work”?
If that was the case, the only people doing work prior to computers were in the typists, pounding away on their IBM Selectrics. And they were often the lowest paid.
The MDN take is on the money. If more people in a corporate environment are using iOS devices, interest in the Mac as a PC for business use will continue to grow.
It’s stealthy, and it’s bloody brilliant.
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant
The new cars will replace most of the trucks. Trucks become obsolete.
It’s an iPad world now.
As much as we love our OS X machines (and I would never replace my computer for any other) and some of us are Mac users for years, unfortunately for a number of reasons the Mac never was a wide adopted device.
With iOS machines, Apple did things right. Apple created the window of opportunity and with the right decisions was able to piggyback on it in a tremendously successful way.
Most computing world is shifting to mobile devices and iOS is more adapted to this task. As I said before, I would never give up on my Mac for another brand, but as the years passes, Macs and traditional computers will become less relevant, beying used only on some tasks where they will still be needed.
At the moment I need -and love- both. But Apple knows where the future is regarding computing technology. And for some time now Apple is laying the foundations to be there everytime and at every opportunity.
For now the Mac is still important. Steve Jobs once said “If I were at Apple I would milk the Macintossh for all its worh and then go to the next big thing”. As much as it is difficult for now to even think that the Mac can eventually die, it can happen in the future when iOS has the hardware and software capabilities for this to happen.
In the meantime, iOS 8 + Yosemite + Continuity + iCloud will help the Mac business during this partnership between Apple and IBM. The author of this article simply doesn’t get the whole picture. Which is a shame in someone with his job.
Go Apple. Keep making awesome devices, software and services.
Trucks and cars people trucks and cars…….
MDN is right and the author has no clue how the large corporations work. I have worked at senior IT levels reporting to CIOs in the top 5 global financial firms and I used to be part of the group that maintained the WinTel hold on the corporations.
I am not here to defend the past but to explain that changing the scene is very difficult and painful because even the IT individuals hate change. The most practical at starting a change is when business users figure how to use new technology and not from the IT group. IT Teams are always managed to keep the cost down which meant avoiding variation. I can tell you that majority of the IT hardcore love iphone/ipad but are often not allowed to change and often told we don’t have the budget. Again not trying to defend what happened/happens but stating a fact, right or wrong.
Bottom line, having IBM saying yes to iPad and iPhone, training their team to be iOS savvy, probably every one of them carrying both to meeting with the executive so they can show case real available solutions and not just talk about it, will suddenly allow the companies’ board members to see the wall of change upon them and they will instruct the IT teams by adjusting their budgets. Meaning more of the budget will be diverted to support iOS devices and the budget for WinTel will get reduced.
For Microsoft and Intel this is very bad news: because budget cut will immediately halt (r reduce the scope greatly) windows OS upgrades which 9 out 10 times meant new hardware (lately more virtual PCs).
This effort will I am sure include IBM providing services that allows companies to offer their users BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) model saving the corporation a way to further reduce pressure on their budget which means more pressure and less budget for further upgrades of the legacy WinTel platform.
Go user choice go Apple
Unless IBM has ported their desktop centric applications over to use iMacs, the use of iMacs in iBM shops is going to be pretty nil. Although we buy Apple iMacs and only run on W7 on quite a few, because of of numerous Windows centric applications, we buy iMacs because we appreciate the aesthetics and reliability. That is not going to fly in big corporations. And putting Parallels and W7 on a Mac is at least a $150 proposition. No, this arrangement will not have much affect on Apple adoption on the desktop or laptops.
All Macs can run Windows, if they need to. IBM develops vertical solutions. Swift will be the common Apple application language for both Mac and iOS devices. IBM will know about Continuity.
For discussion, lets say 75% of corporate jobs can be accomplished with a tablet and the other 25% require the power of a desktop, Many in the iMac realm, some in the Mac Mini realm, a few in the Mac Pro realm. Why would a corporation keep a parallel Windows universe going for a few applications?
Why isn’t Apple beating its chest, shouting “Apple everywhere”? It doesn’t need to. Some things can just happen.
Is the link wrong?
Thanks
Apple makes the vast majority of its money off of iPhones and iPads. The sales of Macs are almost minuscule compared to iOS device sales. Not saying Macs are not important, but Apple is (correctly) foreseeing the day when very few of us have desktop computers. We’ll have a large monitor that our mobile device will wirelessly mirror if we want a large screen. Hence Apple’s relentless focus on MacBooks, MBAs, iMac thinness, Mac mini, and even the new Mac Pro with its small-but-mighty form factor.
but… but… i wuv me macs.
I notice that many people are imagining all sorts of possibilities from the Apple/IBM deal. I see 4 areas specifically mentioned in the agreement.
1. Mobility ( Essentially just an overall goal ).
2. MDM (Mobile Device Management)
3. Big Data Analysis Tools (being given mobility by iOS)
4. IBM Support of Apple Products In the Enterprise. I.e. IBM will support iPads and iPhones in large companies. I.e. AppleCare for the Enterprise.
The deal benefits IBM by linking them more closely with Apple’s successful and sexy iOS, particularly with regard to selling their big data services, systems, and consulting. It benefits Apple of course by helping to sell iOS devices, and providing even more enterprise class MDM than was previously available.
I think it less than prudent to read into this anything you can imagine such as Siri working with Watson (no matter how freaking cool that would be.) I believe Watson’s conversational skills are already superior to Siri’s, just incidentally.
Thing is, they’ve essentially agreed to work together in a few areas. The entire landscape of enterprise computing has not changed because of this.
Apps developed by IBM will help to move iOS devices in the BYOD sphere (which is the future) for sure, but as far as Macs are concerned, I don’t see people with massive Redmond oriented infrastructures suddenly switching to OS X any more than I see Google suddenly chaining their pro-Mac infrastructure to one preferring Windows (even though though easily could).
While this is all good and extremely interesting, I’m betting that they (Apple and IBM) actually stick to what the agreement says.
Everyone talks about how this hurts Microsoft and Oracle and SAS and other enterprise companies, but I see the big loser here being Android in the Enterprise, and Google own big data product “BigQuery.”
Keep in mind too, people using big data in the enterprise are usually comparatively few, like business intelligence folks, upper management, analysts, data scientists, etc.
There will be other people who build big data products on the back of IBM’s systems because of this. From Airlines to large manufacturing companies, my favorite is law enforcement. Think detectives with iPads who enter your license number and see every point where your car has been spotted by mobile police units over the last year, overlaid instantly with crime reports. And because of that big data they have an idea of exactly where you’re going to be around 1:00PM.
And what happens when they finally start sharing such data across municipalities and states? We thought the NSA was bad.
Point is, the applications for big data may be endless and iOS devices as the preferred tool for query and visualization is exciting.
So why have I been writing Mac (not iPad/iPhone yet) apps that connect to IBM’s DB2 databases. Hmmm, I must be wrong…
MDN Take expressed exactly what I was thinking as I read the article. The author has, apparently, been in a cave, from which he emerged just in time to here the IBM/Apple announcement.
iOS has been the wheel that is now starting to turn many consumers to Macs. (Discontinuing support of XP has boosted the trend, too.) The deal with IBM will, ultimately, boost iOS devices in Enterprise, and with the employees of those companies that are participating. And that will be a significant boost for the Mac.