Apple and IBM announced a new partnership today that will see the companies collaborate to bring over 100 enterprise apps & cloud services to the iPhone and iPad and launch a new AppleCare service specifically for enterprise customers. The products will be branded “IBM MobileFirst for iOS Solutions” and IBM will also soon sell iPhones and iPads to enterprise customers along with the new services:
“iPhone and iPad are the best mobile devices in the world and have transformed the way people work with over 98 percent of the Fortune 500 and over 92 percent of the Global 500 using iOS devices in their business today,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “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. This is a radical step for enterprise and something that only Apple and IBM can deliver.”
The companies will be working together to build apps for iPhone and iPad for retail, healthcare, banking, travel and transportation, telecommunications and insurance, and more. That software will start to become available starting in the fall and early 2015 and come alongside the “IBM MobileFirst Platform for iOS” that will act as an end-to-end enterprise solution for iOS. According to the press release, the platform will include “analytics, workflow and cloud storage, to fleet-scale device management, security and integration” and IBM will make package offerings available to companies that include “device activation, supply and management.”
Enhanced mobile management includes a private app catalog, data and transaction security services, and productivity suite for all IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions. In addition to on-premise software solutions, all these services will be available on Bluemix—IBM’s development platform on the IBM Cloud Marketplace.
As for the new AppleCare for Enterprise service, Apple says it will “provide IT departments and end users with 24/7 assistance from Apple’s award-winning customer support group, with on-site service delivered by IBM.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook and IBM CEO Virginia Rometty sat down with CNBC to talk about the new partnership in the video below:
The full press release is below:
“Mobility—combined with the phenomena of data and cloud—is transforming business and our industry in historic ways, allowing people to re-imagine work, industries and professions”
The landmark partnership aims to redefine the way work will get done, address key industry mobility challenges and spark true mobile-led business change—grounded in four core capabilities:
• a new class of more than 100 industry-specific enterprise solutions including native apps, developed exclusively from the ground up, for iPhone and iPad;
• unique IBM cloud services optimized for iOS, including device management, security, analytics and mobile integration;
• new AppleCare® service and support offering tailored to the needs of the enterprise; and
• new packaged offerings from IBM for device activation, supply and management.
The new IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions will be built in an exclusive collaboration that draws on the distinct strengths of each company: IBM’s big data and analytics capabilities, with the power of more than 100,000 IBM industry and domain consultants and software developers behind it, fused with Apple’s legendary consumer experience, hardware and software integration and developer platform. The combination will create apps that can transform specific aspects of how businesses and employees work using iPhone and iPad, allowing companies to achieve new levels of efficiency, effectiveness and customer satisfaction—faster and easier than ever before.
As part of the exclusive IBM MobileFirst for iOS agreement, IBM will also sell iPhones and iPads with the industry-specific solutions to business clients worldwide.
“iPhone and iPad are the best mobile devices in the world and have transformed the way people work with over 98 percent of the Fortune 500 and over 92 percent of the Global 500 using iOS devices in their business today,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “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. This is a radical step for enterprise and something that only Apple and IBM can deliver.”
“Mobility—combined with the phenomena of data and cloud—is transforming business and our industry in historic ways, allowing people to re-imagine work, industries and professions,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and CEO. “This alliance with Apple will build on our momentum in bringing these innovations to our clients globally, and leverages IBM’s leadership in analytics, cloud, software and services. We are delighted to be teaming with Apple, whose innovations have transformed our lives in ways we take for granted, but can’t imagine living without. Our alliance will bring the same kind of transformation to the way people work, industries operate and companies perform.”
Apple and IBM’s shared vision for this partnership is to put in the hands of business professionals everywhere the unique capabilities of iPads and iPhones with a company’s knowledge, data, analytics and workflows. Specifically, the two companies are working together to deliver the essential elements of enterprise mobile solutions:
– Mobile solutions that transform business: The companies will collaborate to build IBM MobileFirst for iOS Solutions—a new class of “made-for-business apps” targeting specific industry issues or opportunities in retail, healthcare, banking, travel and transportation, telecommunications and insurance, among others, that will become available starting this fall and into 2015.
– Mobile platform: The IBM MobileFirst Platform for iOS will deliver the services required for an end-to-end enterprise capability, from analytics, workflow and cloud storage, to fleet-scale device management, security and integration. Enhanced mobile management includes a private app catalog, data and transaction security services, and productivity suite for all IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions. In addition to on-premise software solutions, all these services will be available on Bluemix—IBM’s development platform on the IBM Cloud Marketplace.
– Mobile service and support: AppleCare for Enterprise will provide IT departments and end users with 24/7 assistance from Apple’s award-winning customer support group, with on-site service delivered by IBM.
– Packaged service offerings: IBM is introducing IBM MobileFirst Supply and Management for device supply, activation and management services for iPhone and iPad, with leasing options.
Announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in June and available later this year, Apple’s iOS 8 is the biggest release since the launch of the App Store℠, giving users incredible new features and developers the tools to create amazing new apps. For enterprise, iOS 8 builds on the new IT model for a mobilized workforce by improving the way users are informed of how their devices are configured, managed or restricted, with expanded security, management and productivity features.
Apple designs Macs, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.
IBM’s 5,000 mobile experts have been at the forefront of mobile enterprise innovation. IBM has secured more than 4,300 patents in mobile, social and security, that have been incorporated into IBM MobileFirst solutions that enable enterprise clients to radically streamline and accelerate mobile adoption, help organizations engage more people and capture new markets.
IBM has made a dozen acquisitions in security in the past decade, has more than 6,000 security researchers and developers in its 25 security labs worldwide that work on developing enterprise-class solutions.
IBM has also established the world’s deepest portfolio in Big Data and Analytics consulting and technology expertise based on experiences drawn from more than 40,000 data and analytics client engagements. This analytics portfolio spans research and development, solutions, software and hardware, and includes more than 15,000 analytics consultants, 4,000 analytics patents, 6,000 industry solution business partners, and 400 IBM mathematicians who are helping clients use big data to transform their organizations.
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Reblogged this on Taste of Apple and commented:
Wow. This is truly big news. I don’t think anyone was expecting this. It seems like they’ve thought this out still quite a shocker though.
This should boost the value of AAPL. This is some serious stuff.
Remember how much Steve Jobs used to hate IBM?!? LOL
(This is a good move for today’s Apple and today’s IBM)
Since IBM exited the PC business, they are no longer a competitor. I think Steve would have been ok with this but we’ll never know, will we?
I don’t remember that at all. Do you have a reference? Apple partnered with IBM for the PowerPC chip, and for AIX (on Apple’s UNIX servers in the mid 1990s), and then Taligent (the project that was to replace MacOS before the NeXT acquisition came along)… In short, Apple has a history of working with IBM directly so this is nothing new. Apple has also worked more closely with Microsoft in the past.
That’s the 1984 Mac Introduction SuperBowl TV commercial. Often cited as the best advertisement of all time.
This is some serious stuff. If Apple can break Microsoft’s hold on the enterprise that is huge.
I was just looking for Tim to have a ‘watch’ on or a tan line where a watch usually sits on the arm, but no, no slip ups, plus his sleeves were long and tight around the wrist.
Steve is rolling over in his coffin :-/
Eventually, IBM will cheat Apple and come up with their own phone and tablets called… (sarcasm)
Anyone remember this commercial? Apple has joined forces with who they used to despise most. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_d5R6Il0II
Times they are a-changin…
No wonder it took them so long! lol….. IBM has been using Linux for 15yrs. What do Apple fans and Apple think IBM has been doing since Android came out? Yeah working with Google, ARM, SAMSUNG to bring their Enterprise Level of Security and Management Tools to the Work Place Globally! ……move along nothing new here in all reality! ;-P
What a big move by these super powers. Expecting huge innovations from the industry now.
The impact on other global companies, both partners and competitors will be enormous. Some firms will be forced to re-direct their corporate strategy. Others will simply be smudged into the spaces left by the curb on the street. Brutal,.
I find it odd that Apple and fans are making such a big deal out of this. IBM has been partnering with Android vendors for a long time. SAMSUNG and IBM OFFER…… KNOX for Android and many of their Enterprise Management Tools. They were really so much smarter than Apple about offering Enterprise more choices, better security, better integration of IBM Cloud Services and so many ways to integrate IBM’s Expertise in LINUX! …..something IBM has spent Billions on marketing and developing that’s been so simply introduced to Enterprise by IBM for the last 15 Yrs!
Thanks for the laugh!
Laugh? lol… Right…..! haha….. IBM and SAMSUNG are long time partners and Apple is their long time enemy. No doubt who’ll get the best of this deal. IBM has been looking for a way to pay Apple back. Now they’ve got it! :DDD