Apple and IBM today announced a new partnership that will see the two companies cooperate “to transform enterprise mobility through a new class of business apps” by bringing IBM data and analytics apps and services to the iPhone and iPad. The new enterpise mobility partnership includes over 100 industry-specific enterprise apps and solutions, cloud services optimized for iOS offering device management, security, analytics and mobile integration, new AppleCare service offerings aimed at the enterprise space and new packaged offerings from IBM for device activation, supply and management.
“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 new apps and services will be offered under the umbrella of the IBM MobileFirst for iOS brand. The first offerings will launch this fall with more to come in 2015.
This global enterprise mobility partnership announcement clearly shows that Apple is serious about making further inroads in the corporate market which is dominated by companies such as BlackBerry and Microsoft at the present. It also puts more pressure on Google to ensure that Android can also compete in this market.
Source : Apple