Apple together with IBM who's cheese was robbed?

Huang 锴 / text

Apple and IBM announced on Tuesday that the two companies have reached an exclusive agreement of cooperation. In the future, both parties will create a new category of business applications that will transform IBM's big data and analytics into the iPhone and iPad, transforming the entire enterprise mobile market.

To put it simply, Apple and IBM are teamed up to sell iPhones and iPads to "Global Business Customers." With this partnership, Apple has been able to extend its reach beyond the consumer world into the most money-rich high-end Market; IBM is trying to get more enterprise software into people's mobile devices to catch the trend of mobile office.

If this cooperation was put 30 years ago, people would find it hard to imagine. At that time, Apple described IBM as the dreaded Big Brother who maintained the status quo while Apple Macintosh opened up a new path for freedom. Now, two years of competition suddenly announced cooperation, is surprising.

However, after careful observation, it is not difficult to find that enterprise-class commercial applications have been the shortcomings of the iOS ecosystem, and IBM has been cultivating for many years in this field. According to a Dimensional Research survey last month, the total amount of purchases of iOS devices by businesses over the past three years doubled to 68%. In stark contrast, only 20% of users said they have enough management tools and platforms to support the growing number of iOS office devices in their organization. In other words, "difficult to unified management" has become a major drawback that restricts Apple's business market. In addition, data security, cloud computing and IPhone synchronization with other devices defects, have plagued Apple.

From this perspective, it is reasonable to join forces. In this partnership, Apple will rely on IBM's big data and analytics capabilities, enterprise-class solutions for R & D capabilities and rich service user experience. Of course, in exchange, many new applications of Apple will rely on IBM's cloud network.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told overseas media in an interview with IBM CEO Virginia Rometty: "We were competitors in 1984. But in 2014 we were the most complementary business The two companies are really a milestone deal. "

Right now, engineers on both sides are developing more than 100 applications for several industries. The first apps are expected to arrive this fall when Apple releases iOS 8, the next mobile operating system.

Share prices have risen after both Apple and IBM announced the news. Apple shares rose almost 2% to $ 97.00 in after-hours trading in the New York market and IBM shares rose nearly 2% to $ 192.30 in after-hours trading.

In fact, not only are the tech giants such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Blackberry, Samsung and others in the enterprise market expanding their ambitions in recent years. This "win-win" deal between Apple and IBM posed a significant threat to several other giants.

Bear the brunt of the BlackBerry. It has been stuck in an awkward middle position in the corporate marketing battle between iOS and Android. Now that Apple's partnership with IBM was announced, BlackBerry's hope of a comeback through the corporate market has been doused with cold water. It is reported that its share price in the New York market after-hours trading down 4%.

Microsoft in turmoil and change is just as alarming. Microsoft's new CEO Nadella hopes to "run Microsoft services on all devices", which of course includes the most profitable corporate office computing for Microsoft. The partnership between Apple and IBM will also affect Microsoft's promotion of Windows 8 tablets and smartphones. However, even if Apple and IBM are not strong alliance, the promotion of Windows 8 mobile products has been very difficult thing. Now, Microsoft will face greater challenges.

Another affected giant is Google. Have to say, Android partners in the enterprise market are numerous and messy, a large number of versions also make this platform hard to take care of. Google to compete with Apple, as soon as possible and IBM such heavyweight business cooperation. However, it is hard to find a partner that can be compared with IBM.

There are also comments that the cooperation between Apple and IBM will inspire Google for its Android system partners in the business sector. In response, Google did not comment.