Apple and IBM are teaming up on what can be perceived as a historic push for the enterprise. This particular deal strongly includes the iPhone, and the iPad, as Apple attempts to make its mobile devices more friendly in a business setting.
The new deal will see IBM provide important business-related cloud services, which includes security and device management for iPhones and iPads. IBM aims to sell these enterprise iDevices to business customers, and is even willing to go the extra mile to specialize the business features for particular industries.
In recent times, Apple claimed that 98 percent of the fortune 500 companies use its iOS devices. However, this partnership with IBM proves that Apple lacks the expertise when it comes down to the enterprise, and tackling large corporate customers.
This deal comes at the right time for Apple after the company has come under fire for its not so impressive cloud services. What IBM is offering is far better, and could boost Apple's influence in the enterprise market for the better.
"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 iOS platform is gettin into a better position to penetrate the enterprise market even furtherafter the launch of Microsoft's Office 365 suite. It should help enterprise folks accomplish a wide variety work related tasks along with moving seamlessly between tablet, smartphone, and desktop computer.
At the moment, the biggest loser in this space is Microsoft. The more Apple intrudes into the enterprise, the more market share Microsoft stands to lose. The company is in this spot due to companies unwilling to upgrade to Windows 8, and it is going to be more difficult now after rumors of Windows 9 making its debut in 2015.
