A new report today (via Gigaom) has provided some more information about the alliance the two companies recently forged. According to UBS analyst Steven Milunovich, Apple has taken a dominant role in the relationship, demanding that IBM salespeople carry MacBooks pre-loaded with sales presentations created by Apple.
While IBM has mostly been building software for businesses like reators and banks, the analyst’s note indicates that the company may soon branch out into other offerings as well, potentially including supply chain applications and the like.
Apple and IBM announced their partnership last year, with Tim Cook saying that he was “really excited” about the deal. Apple later debuted AppleCare for Enterprise to help support IBM’s clients with fast response times and device replacements.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Makes sense. Apple likes to be in control.
Imagine that, first IBM and Apple were competitors and now IBM is Apple’s Enterprise Sales arm, but also a customer of Apple.
I smell an acquisition.
That’d be interesting, but overall too costly for Apple I think.
I can’t imagine the US government allowing it either even if they could afford it. Unless that’s what you mean by “it costly”.
I’d be skeptical. Apple partnered with IBM because enterprise is not their strength. The core strength of Apple is consumer goods. Apple’s strength has been to focus on doing a few things well and not expand into a million side businesses. IMO, the next big move by Apple if they decide to acquire someone big is going to be a media company to anchor their expansion into the “living room”. Play to their strengths.