TechGreatest
Apple-IBM Deal Equals Bad News For Microsoft, Potential Deathblow For BlackBerry
Apple-IBM deal will see iPhones and iPads break new ground in enterprise, and this is very bad news for Microsoft, Google and BlackBerry
Last night Apple made what was probably one of its most unexpected announcements when it revealed that it is forming a new partnership with IBM to radically alter the way it serves enterprise customers. Part of the reason the announcement was so unexpected is because Apple, generally, doesn’t care all that much about enterprise (compared to consumer, anyway). And then of course there is the fact that Apple and IBM started out as bitter rivals more than 30 years ago.
Remember that 1984 ad? That was a scathing attack on IBM. So why have the two companies partnered now and what will it mean for their customers and competitors? Let’s take a look.
Apple & IBM: The Deal
Apple CEO Tim Cook and IBM CEO Virginia Rometty made a rare joint appearance on America’s CNBC to announce the new venture. Under the terms of the deal the companies hope to “transform enterprise mobility” by providing “a new class of business apps” that take advantage of the power and simplicity of iOS and the big data and analytics capabilities of IBM.
In a press release the companies said their goal is to redefine the way we all get work done and they are doing this through four core initiatives:
- 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.
Apple & IBM: What It Means For Enterprise
From a consumer perspective it’s clear we’ve been in a Post-PC world for a while now. Our main devices are mobile: our smartphones and tablets. But on the enterprise level (“enterprise” is just a euphemism for “business”) that change from PC to Post-PC has taken longer and is a much more rigid transition. To be sure, enterprise is using smartphones and tablets like never before – it’s just that businesses can’t totally rely on them in they way consumers can to do virtually everything they require.
That’s because businesses often have hyper-focused needs in their apps, which need to be updated often to reflect new requirements. They also need to be rolled out across hundreds or thousands of devices, with both speed and security in mind. Doing all that on mobile has been tough and that’s exactly what Apple and IBM’s partnership is designed to make easier.
The partnership will also ease the load on IT departments, which are often overwhelmed with work, and allow them to deploy new devices and software faster than ever before.
Looking at the four core initiatives of their partnership – called IBM MobileFirst for iOS – the new deal will see 100,000 IBM employees dedicated to developing apps and consulting directly with enterprise partners to tailor those apps to their specific needs.
Now sure, those enterprise customers could obviously make their own apps for iOS already, but the new partnerships between IBM and Apple will likely give apps made through the IBM MobileFirst for iOS program access to more advanced or currently-restricted APIs (Siri, Find My iPhone) that will enable enterprise customers to tailor apps to their hyper-specific needs.
How It’s Great For Apple and IBM
Arguably this deal is better for Apple than IBM. Most of these large enterprise customers are already clients of IBM in some form. And while most of these enterprise customers do already use Apple devices, the partnership will give Apple an easier distribution channel entry into enterprise.
This deal could give IBM a cool factor it can’t buy anywhere else
Apple’s current distribution channels (Apple Stores, Apple’s online store) are built and tailored around the consumer; IBM’s are tailored around enterprise. This deal will not only see IBM develop specific apps for enterprise clients, it will see the multi-billion dollar company sell iPhones and iPads with the industry-specific solutions directly to business clients worldwide.
That’s an entirely new distribution channel Apple didn’t have a month ago.
As for IBM, the main advantage of the deal is its exclusivity. Apple has stated its not going to turn around and do a similar deal with IBM’s competitors, like HP. That exclusivity means large enterprise customers will turn to IBM first if they need specific apps developed for their company and want to use iOS devices. The deal has the added benefit of perhaps shifting the way people see the 100-year-old company.
Why It’s So Bad For Microsoft, Google, and Blackberry
But in the business world if one deal is so good for some, it’s usually very bad for others. And in this case the Apple/IBM deal could be seriously bad news for Microsoft and Google. Here though, it’s Microsoft that it’s primarily bad for. For the last several years Microsoft has really been pushing Windows Phone in enterprise. This made sense for the company and for enterprise customers because Microsoft’s Windows run on the majority of enterprise desktops and Windows Phone works seamlessly with it. Microsoft also has a lot more enterprise expertise than Apple.
But now that Apple has teamed up with IBM, the company with the most enterprise expertise in the world, it could see the brakes being applied to Windows Phone inroads into enterprise. As for Google and Blackberry, this initiative could severely hinder the former and obliterate the latter entirely.
Industry analyst Tim Barjarin also agrees this move could create myriad problems from the likes of Google, Samsung and Microsoft. In a post on his excellent blog, TechPinions, Barjarin said, “This is not good news for the Android crowd. Google, and especially Samsung, had been on a course to try and get more Android devices into IT. However, this Apple/IBM deal will make that very, very difficult now and, if the deal works as designed, it could pretty much upstage any opportunity Android devices have in any future enterprise programs.
“This will also have an impact on Microsoft’s quest to make Win 8 tablets and smartphones the de facto standard in IT. That would have been a tough thing to do even if Apple and IBM had not gotten together, but it will be even more difficult for them to gain a lot of ground with Windows 8 mobile devices in IT now.”
But It’s A LOT Worse For BlackBerry…
Blackberry became so big in the noughties because it had a well-oiled enterprise solution in its secure messaging platform and had staff that knew how to talk enterprise. But now that Apple has that staff through IBM, and iOS is already the most secure mobile operating system on the planet, this new partnership could be the final nail in the coffin for Blackberry. Why use their phones for enterprise when Apple and IBM can now offer a solution that is much better and much more scalable?
As for Google, the new partnership could see adoption of Android, already hindered in enterprise by its fragmentation and security issues, begin to stagnate. Apple and IBM’s solution is just more appealing, so why buy an Android device when you know an iOS one will “just work”?