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Edward Smith

Unlikely friends: IBM and Apple team up to sell iPhones and iPads to businesses

The deal aims to fill the gap left by the collapse of Blackberry.

APPLE IS TEAMING up with former nemesis IBM in an attempt to sell more iPhones and iPads to corporate customers and government agencies.

The partnership calls for the two technology companies to work together on about 100 different mobile applications designed for a wide range of industries.

The applications, expected to be released this fall, will feature some of data-crunching tools that IBM Corp. sells to companies trying to get a better grasp on their main markets while scouring for new money-making opportunities.

IBM is also pledging to provide better security to reassure companies concerned about hackers stealing vital information off the mobile devices of employees doing less of their work on desktop and laptop computers.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said his company is turning to help from IBM because it doesn’t understand the needs of corporate customers as well as it does consumers.

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty said the alliance will help her company by widening the audience for its technological tools, providing bigger returns on the roughly $24 billion that IBM has invested in data analytics.

“It’s a watershed partnership that brings together the best of Apple and the best of IBM,” Cook said during an interview at Apple’s Cupertino, California headquarters.

Underscoring the importance of the alliance, Rometty flew from IBM’s Armonk, New York headquarters to join Cook for the announcement.

“This is about two powerhouses unleashing the power of mobility for (businesses),” Rometty said. “This is going to remake professions and industries.”

By joining forces, Apple and IBM are hoping to build mobile applications that prove iPhones and iPads can serve many other business purposes besides checking email and keeping track of appointments. Cook says the devices are already used for work within all but a handful of Fortune 500 companies.

Both Apple and IBM are counting on their foray to boost their own revenue. The companies both have been facing concerns on Wall Street about whether they will be able to accelerate their revenue growth at a rate that will propel their stocks higher.

Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs, Cook’s predecessor, never concealed his disdain for IBM, but longtime Apple analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies is convinced Jobs would have hailed Tuesday’s news as another step away from the days when IBM’s mainframe computers dominated technology. “Steve would have loved this,” Bajarin said. “It shows that the post-PC era is in full swing now.”

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    Mute John Mallon
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    Jul 16th 2014, 9:30 AM

    There is a fallacy that endured about the relationship between Apple and IBM. It arises from the 1984 ad that Apple ran depicting ‘Big Blue’ as the boring ‘Big Brother’ character in computing. IBM invented the PC after all and Apple were launching a totally different kind of PC with its Macintosh.

    But aside from the hardware designs on both, the true difference was in the respective operating systems with IBM opting to use Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS/DOS) and Apple writing its own O/S. From an Apple perspective therefore, the hated enemy was Microsoft and not IBM. Companies such as Dell, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and many others set themselves up as clones of the IBM hardware and because Apple refused to license its O/S, MS/DOS and later Windows-based computers became the dominant machines taking 90% of the market.

    With the advent of the Internet and TCP/IP in particular, the OS became less important, hardware now includes Pads and Phones as well as Laptops and Desktops and mobility is the key word in computing. It’s thirty years since that ad in 1984 and everything has changed utterly so the partnership of IBM and Apple is far from strange today.

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    Mute Steven Geoghegan
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    Jul 16th 2014, 8:49 AM

    Very powerful united

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    Mute Frank
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    Jul 16th 2014, 8:49 AM

    Both working towards the chip in hand.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eob532iEpqk&feature=kp

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    Mute Claire O' Connor
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    Jul 16th 2014, 8:40 AM

    Sleeping with the enemy..

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    Mute Frank
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    Jul 16th 2014, 9:10 AM
    3
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    Mute Goldberg
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    Jul 16th 2014, 8:50 AM

    The iNerds won’t like this – queueing up all night to buy the latest bug fix from big brother

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    Mute Niall Condren
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    Jul 16th 2014, 9:39 AM

    “This is about two powerhouses unleashing the power of mobility for business”

    The last time IBM unleashed the power of mobility they provided the Third Reich with tabulating machines and punch card technology which allowed Hitler to identify and round up the Jews with stunning precision.

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    Mute Sean gilsenan
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    Jul 16th 2014, 9:48 AM

    In fairness the have done a few other things since then.

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    Mute Frank
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    Jul 16th 2014, 10:05 AM

    The history book on the shelf always repeats itself…

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/30/biometric-identification-_n_1177277.html

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    Mute Niall Condren
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    Jul 16th 2014, 10:40 AM

    Of course they have, that’s just the one that stands out to me,

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    Mute nutzen cider
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    Jul 16th 2014, 11:22 AM

    Tabulating machines don’t kill people, people kill people.

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    Mute Frank
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    Jul 16th 2014, 11:47 AM

    nutzen cider

    ….Tools and technology can be used to make the killing of people far more efficient.

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    Mute Jack Ripper
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    Jul 16th 2014, 10:04 AM

    That psychopath Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave. He hated IBM and everything they stand for.

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    Mute Éanna McClean
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    Jul 17th 2014, 1:04 AM

    I wonder what Microsoft’s Board makes of this….

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