【The Verge】Apple and IBM partner to make iOS king of the office (4104) Apple and IBM have just announced what the companies describe as a landmark partnership designed to redefine the way work will get done, address key industry mobility challenges and spark true mobile-led business change. Put more simply, theyre aiming to combine their respective strengths and aggressively tackle the enterprise market. IBM says it will contribute its big data and analytics expertise, with Apple offering the elegant user experience of iPhone and iPad. The move could transform Apple, which ordinarily focuses squarely on consumers, into a true business powerhouse. It could also touch off a new battle with Microsoft, which now more than ever is focused on the enterprise and cloud services. Apple and IBM want to conquer the enterprise IBM will sell iOS devices to corporate clients that come preloaded with enterprise software designed in collaboration with Apple; those apps will become available starting this fall with more debuting in 2015. Both companies are promising a new category of mobile apps that address the needs of specific industries like retail, healthcare, banking, travel, telecommunications, and insurance. The apps will of course make heavy use of IBMs cloud infrastructure, all the while coexisting with Apples own services like iCloud. Apple also announced that it plans to add a new AppleCare for Enterprise customer service tier that will provide IT departments and users with 24/7 support. In an interview with Recode, Tim Cook basically admitted that Apple needed to look outside the company to piece together an offering that meets every conceivable enterprise need. We’re good at building a simple experience and in building devices, he said. The kind of deep industry expertise you would need to really transform the enterprise isn’t in our DNA. But it is in IBM’s. Apple has fared alright without IBMs support; plenty of Fortune 500 businesses have already deployed many, many iPhones and iPads to end users. But teaming with IBM will only take that momentum further. Arguably there is a new level to achieve in business, he told CNBC. We knew we couldnt do it alone, Cook said, adding that Apple found a kindred spirit in IBM. Ginni Rometty, IBMs CEO, agrees. 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, she said in a statement. Our alliance will bring the same kind of transformation to the way people work, industries operate and companies perform. Link to Original 【Insider】Apple And IBM Announce Huge Partnership For Large Business Customers (2804) Apple announced Tuesday a partnership with IBM that will help the company greatly increase the presence of its mobile devices in the enterprise. In short, the partnership will play on the strengths of both companies. IBM will use its sales force to sell iPhones and iPads to its network of business customers. IBM will also develop cloud services optimized for iOS, the operating system for iPhones and iPads. Apple will provide hardware support for devices through a special AppleCare program designed for big businesses buying Apple gadgets in bulk. It includes benefits like 24/7 assistance. The iPhones and iPads sold through the program will ship with IBMs MobileFirst platform, which includes a lot of productivity tools big companies need. While the IBM-Apple partnership may not seem shocking today, its pretty crazy considering the two companies were mortal enemies some 30 years ago. Both competed directly against each other in the budding PC market. For example, Steve Jobs famously flipped off IBMs logo in this iconic photo: But times have changed, and in interview with CNBC Apple CEO Tim Cook said it was time to abandon the animosity that existed between the two companies for so long. Weve come from 30 years ago being competitors to today being incredibly complementary and I think that the people that will really benefit from this are the enterprise customers who can be more productive running their businesses, said Cook. Its clear Apple realized it needed to do something big to expand in the enterprise. The reality is, that the penetration of these businesses and in commercial in general for mobility is still low, Cook told CNBC. So where we have very good market share the penetration suggests theres a huge opportunity here. Heres the full press release from Apple and IBM: Apple and IBM today announced an exclusive partnership that teams the market-leading strengths of each company to transform enterprise mobility through a new class of business apps—bringing IBM’s big data and analytics capabilities to iPhone and iPad. 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. Link to Original 【TechCrunch】Apple Teams Up With IBM For Huge, Expansive Enterprise Push (2823) Apple has announced a strategic partnership with IBM that will see the enterprise giant transfer over 150 of their enterprise and IT apps and tools to Apple platforms natively, and will also have IBM selling Apple iPhones and iPads to its business clients all over the world. In an interview with CNBC, Apple CEO Tim Cook and IBM CEO Virginia Rometty both told the network that Apple and IBM are… Read More Link to Original 【Re/code】Apple and IBM Team Up to Push iOS in the Enterprise (975) Courtesy of Apple/Paul Sakuma Apple and IBM today announced a broad partnership to help companies deploy wireless devices and business-specific applications to run on them. The combination brings together two historical competitors — who decades ago struggled to dominate the nascent market for personal computers — on the next wave of computing in business: Mobile devices with access to complex data running in the cloud. In an interview with Re/code at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Apple CEO Tim Cook and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty described the tie-up as one that only the two companies could deliver. “If you were building a puzzle, they would fit nicely together with no overlap,” Cook said of the relationship. “We do not compete on anything. And when you do that you end up with something better than either of you could produce yourself.” Calling Apple the “gold standard for consumers,” Rometty said the team-up will allow the two giants to address significant opportunities facing large businesses. “We will get to remake professions and unlock value that companies don’t yet have,” she said. “We’re addressing serious issues that before this had been inhibiting deployment of wireless in the enterprise.” The move will also allow IBM to bring to bear its investments in big data and analytics plus cloud computing services and mobility. Last year it made a significant bet around developing mobile software for the enterprise with an initiative it called MobileFirst. In working with Apple, it has created an extension, dubbed MobileFirst, for iOS. The partnership got favorable initial reviews from investors in after-hours trading, with IBM up almost two percent and Apple up about 1.50 percent. The deal calls for IBM and Apple to develop more than 100 industry-specific applications that will run on the iPhone and iPad, including applications for security, analyzing corporate data and managing the devices themselves. Apple will add a new class of service to its AppleCare program and support aimed at enterprise customers. IBM will continue to support other wireless operating systems including Google’s Android. IBM will also begin to sell iPhones and iPads to its corporate customers and will devote more than 100,000 people, including consultants and software developers, to the effort. Enterprise applications will in many cases run on IBM’s cloud infrastructure or on private clouds that it has built for its customers. Data for those applications will co-exist with personal data like photos and personal email that will run on Apple’s iCloud and other cloud services. Apple has never made much noise about its enterprise sales and has famously shied away from having a dedicated enterprise sales force. In teaming up with IBM, Cook said, Apple is getting the best of both worlds. Were Apple to fully embrace its potential opportunity in the enterprise it might have to build a new division to the company. In teaming up with IBM it won’t have to go that far. “We’re good at building a simple experience and in building devices,” Cook said. “The kind of deep industry expertise you would need to really transform the enterprise isn’t in our DNA. But it is in IBM’s.” Still, since the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and of the iPad in 2010, the company has quietly emerged as a powerhouse supplier of wireless devices to the world’s largest companies. Cook frequently cites the statistic that 98 percent of the Fortune 500 are either testing or actively deploying iOS devices for use by their employees. And its list of corporate customers is long, including Nestle, FedEx, Deutsche Bank, Johnson Controls, Luxottica, American Airlines, Barclay’s, Cisco Systems, GE and NASA, each of which has deployed tens of thousands of iPhones and iPads among their employees and executives. The workplace trend known as “bring your own device,” or BYOD, has been especially kind to Apple. Companies have increasingly allowed employees to use their personal devices for work email and to access other data. According to the research firm IDC, iPhones accounted for 82 percent of smartphones in use at U.S. corporations and 36 percent globally; iPads accounted for 73 percent of tablets in use at U.S. corporations and 39 percent around the world. Another important indicator of the heft of Apple’s presence in the enterprise market is the number of software vendors that have embraced it, which is practically all of them. SAP, Oracle, Netsuite and Salesforce were all quick to adapt their business applications to the iPhone and iPad. And practically every enterprise-focused startup — Tidemark, New Relic, Box and others — have been iPhone- and iPad-ready practically from day one. Apple and IBM will collaborate on building a new class of applications specifically tailored for certain industries, including retail, health care, banking, travel and transportation. The first of those applications will be available in the fall and will be released into next year. Here are Rometty and Cook talking about the initiative with CNBC’s Josh Lipton: This embed is invalid /> Link to Original 【NYT】Apple Joins With IBM on Business Software (643) CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple is moving up to business class. And its seatmate will be IBM.In a deal that could deepen Apple’s sales to corporations and strengthen IBM’s position in business software, the two companies announced a wide-ranging partnership intended to spread advanced mobile and data analysis technology in the corporate world.IBM and Apple have been working together on the venture for several months, and they are jointly working on more than 100 business software programs developed exclusively for Apple’s iOS operating system and for use on iPhones and iPads. The applications will be tailored for use in industries including retail, health care, transportation, banking, insurance and telecommunications.“We’ve already seen some unbelievable work,” Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in an interview conducted along with Virginia M. Rometty, IBM’s chief executive. Mr. Cook described the venture with IBM as “a landmark partnership” for both companies.Neither Apple nor IBM would disclose financial terms of the deal.Ms. Rometty said the companies planned to combine data analysis, cloud and mobile technology with Apple’s smartphones and tablets, turning the devices into decision-making tools rather than ones used mainly for email, text-messaging and contacts. The long-term goal, Ms. Rometty said, is to use the technology to “reimagine how work is done” and to “unlock value, remake professions and transform companies.”The two executives offered few examples. They mentioned an airline pilot tapping a calculation of updated fuel use and flight paths as weather conditions change, or an insurance agent calibrating risk assessments of a potential client. But this week was a time for the announcement, not product demonstrations, they said. The 100 or so applications will be introduced starting in the fall.The applications, Mr. Cook said, will bring “big data analytics down to the fingertips” of Apple iPhone and iPad users in corporations. “IBM can do that,” he said, in a way that Apple cannot.Under the partnership, IBM will serve as a sales force in corporate accounts for Apple products and provide on-site service, which have been gaps in Apple’s capabilities.The Apple-IBM alliance in the corporate marketplace, analysts said, looks promising. “This partnership is complementary for the two companies, both in terms of their respective strengths and weaknesses,” said Frank Gens, chief analyst for IDC, a research firm.Even without a direct sales force and service, Apple’s iPhones and iPads are used by over 92 percent of the Fortune Global 500 companies, Mr. Cook said. But there is still a vast untapped market for Apple, he said, by selling more of its products to large companies and reaching the wider corporate market.“The penetration is low, and the ceiling is so far above us it’s unbelievable,” Mr. Cook said.The partnership, analysts said, also should help both companies woo software developers, who are increasingly focusing their efforts on mobile and cloud applications.Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyApple’s iOS operating system, they say, is the development environment preferred by many developers, but Google’s Android operating system is used on more mobile devices. The emphatic IBM endorsement of iOS in the corporate market, however, could give Apple an edge there, analysts say.“It makes it much harder to get serious consideration for Android in corporations,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology research firm.And Apple’s embrace of IBM, analysts say, will help attract developers to IBM’s cloud software development platform, called Bluemix.IBM has been making a big push into mobile computing as one its three crucial strategic initiatives, along with data analytics and cloud. The partnership with Apple, Ms. Rometty said, is “at the intersection of those three things coming together.”IBM has made several acquisitions in mobile technology, employs 5,000 mobile experts worldwide and holds hundreds of patents in the field. Its mobile software and services business is growing sharply, with revenue rising nearly 70 percent last year.For Apple, IBM brings a deep global reach in international markets. Both companies do most of their business overseas, about 65 percent or so. But Apple’s surge in international sales, Mr. Cook noted, has come only in the last four or five years. Mr. Cook, who worked for IBM for 12 years, leaving in 1994, referred to IBM’s “deep roots” worldwide, with operations and offices in many countries. “IBM brings a lot there,” he said.Industry surveys show that corporate technology managers are reluctant to put applications that can pull sensitive corporate data on mobile devices, because of security concerns. IBM has a corps of 6,000 security researchers and developers in 25 security labs worldwide — another asset IBM brings to the partnership.“It’s clear that IBM and security go hand in hand,” Mr. Cook said.Ms. Rometty added that the partnership would seek to “remove all the inhibitors” corporations have to adopting smart mobile applications that mine crucial business data.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 03:13:09 +0000
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