Apple Inc and IBM Corp on Tuesday unveiled a “landmark” partnership to win over business customers by offering iPhones and iPads that are specially tailored to the corporate world.
The tie-up between what were historically rivals aims to boost Apple’s share of the market for mobile devices for businesses and will offer custom-made apps that bring the power of IBM’s supercomputing analytics to a mobile workforce, a joint statement said.
The companies plan to release more than 100 industry-specific enterprise solutions, including apps developed for the iOS platform, along with IBM cloud services, security and analytics.
As part of the deal, IBM is also to sell iPhones and iPads tailored to specific industries.
“For the first time ever, we’re putting IBM’s renowned big data analytics at iOS users’ fingertips, which opens up a large market opportunity for Apple,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said. “This is a radical step for enterprise and something that only Apple and IBM can deliver.”
IBM chairman and CEO Ginni Rometty said the alliance “will build on our momentum in bringing these innovations to our clients globally.”
Industry analyst Jeff Kagan called the tie-up between what were fierce competitors an “incredible turn of events.”
“Apple is looking for growth in the business community for their devices like iPhone, iPad and iCloud services. IBM is the company who can help Apple do just that,” he said. “The mobile and telecom space is one of the hottest-growing segments. Apple really has not done a great job on the business side of the market. That’s why this deal with IBM seems to make so much sense. We’ll have to see if this works, but the thinking behind it sure makes sense.”
Apple is to create a new service and support offering tailored help, while IBM is to manage some of the functions like device activation and security. The deal also includes a private app catalog and helps business customers transform IBM services for mobile devices.
The new offerings are to be pushed through Apple’s new mobile operating system, iOS 8, which was unveiled last month.
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