“IBM Corp’s recent move to partner with Apple Inc to sell iPhones and iPads loaded with corporate applications has excited investors in both companies, but two rivals say they are unperturbed for now,” Euan Rocha and Alastair Sharp report for Reuters.
“Top executives at Dell and BlackBerry Ltd scoffed at the threat posed by the alliance this week, arguing the tie-up is unlikely to derail the efforts of their own companies to re-invent themselves,” Rocha and Sharp report. “‘I do not think that we take the Apple-IBM tie-up terribly seriously. I think it just made a good press release,’ John Swainson, who heads Dell’s global software business, said in an interview with Reuters in Toronto on Thursday.”
“PC maker Dell and smartphone maker BlackBerry are in the midst of reshaping their companies around software and services, as the needs of their big corporate clients morph,” Rocha and Sharp report. “BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen similarly downplayed the threat of the alliance in an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday, likening the tie-up to when ‘two elephants start dancing.'”
“Chen told the Financial Times that BlackBerry was in early discussions with some companies about working together in parts of the enterprise market, but did not name them,” Rocha and Sharp report. “Whether a BlackBerry-Dell partnership will materialize is unclear for now.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What is it about Apple’s hapless roadkill that compels them to repeatedly insert their feet into their mouths? Beleaguered Dell has nothing and smooshed BlackBerry has even less.
Apple+IBM vs. Dell-BlackBerry would be like all-stars from the Red Sox+Yankees vs. the Kansas City Blues-Houston Buffaloes, two defunct minor league teams.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Stereotype” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple-IBM partnership: Microsoft today, Google tomorrow – July 26, 2014
The IBM partnership makes Apple a real enterprise player in retail – July 19, 2014
Apple + IBM: Connecting the dots – July 18, 2014
Why Apple’s deal with IBM is the biggest tech news of 2014 – July 18, 2014
Apple’s deal with IBM is a strategic strike in a larger war – July 17, 2014
What Apple gets from its new iOS partnership with IBM – July 17, 2014
The one huge thing missing in Apple’s big enterprise deal with IBM or something – July 17, 2014
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