These solutions will be sold to someone in the enterprise with a pay grade much higher than IT or the CIO/CTO.
Yea, you're right, Dick.
Heck, what's not to like.
We all know that money talks and BS walks when it comes to business.
This partnership could save a single large corporate millions in IT costs alone let alone productivity gains.
IBM have the sales team to sell this.
edit: And there's likely to be an added bonus for Apple as the legacy corporate Beige boxes get replaced with iMacs or MBPs or even Mac Minis.
It could work out very successfully for both companies.
And, having been there [IBM], walked the walk and talked the talk -- Tim, likely, understands the significance of all this better than any other competitive CEO!
The original saying was "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"... ... Long before AAPL and MSFT even existed!
For those who've never dealt with IBM, here's a video that exemplifies the IBM corporate culture under T.J. Watson, Sr.:
[VIDEO]
Then this, whenT.J. Left NCR as head of Sales:
[QUOTE][B][U][SIZE=4]Thomas Watson Sr. was “fired” by NCR[/SIZE][/U][/B]
Thomas J. Watson Sr., former President of International Business Machines (IBM) Famously, NCR’s star sales executive Thomas Watson Sr. met a similar fate. In 1914, Watson argued that NCR’s dominant product, mechanical cash registers, would soon go obsolete. He proposed that NCR develop electric cash registers. Patterson resisted the idea. He demanded that Watson focus on nothing but sales and not worry about innovation. Following an argument at a meeting, Patterson dismissed Watson. In a fit of anger, Patterson had workers carry Watson’s desk outside and had it lit on fire. Thomas Watson Sr. was thus “fired.” Thomas Watson Sr. then joined a smaller competitor, Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R,) which soon grew into International Business Machines (IBM.) Thomas Watson Sr. led IBM for forty years and turned IBM into the world’s leading technology company.[/QUOTE]
Once android gets forked for good by manufacturers and Larry Ellison hits goole hard for all those stolen patents, they'll be back to square 1, their search engine, which by that time could very well have taken a serious blow from MS, via apple.
Fun times for the entrepreneur of the year according to Fortune magazine.
I think you overlooked Google's search patent expiring in a couple years too... I think those mystery barges are really arks to hold all the rats when Google sinks slowly into the west.
Several of these apps seem to depend upon a lot of analytics data. It makes me wonder how IBM and their clients are accumulating these data,
or if they already have. These apps seem to enable the situation where companies and government entities seek to know everything about individuals.
Will we be given an opportunity to not participate?
This is what IBM has been working on for some time; they call it "Big Data" and it allows the enterprise user that buys into the IBM deal to have access to a lot of data that IBM has been accumulating on big trends that have not generally emerged from the smoke of battle but are real-time trends. If an enterprise could see a trend two weeks or two months before their competition, they could have a huge advantage in business. This is not personal or individual data, or anything that granular, but regional or national trends which are more important for planning and responding. If you are being advised by IBM about your small business or personal finances, then you are being given an opportunity to participate by giving up your data to overlay on a ever-changing big-data map. While your personal data is not made part of the big data map, your interest in the big data influences the big data in itself...like opening a door in a big room will influence how the air mixes and moved in the interior space due to the rules of fluid dynamics.
Let me put it this way; Advertising Marketing wants to know your personal interests so you can be more directly marketed to you. Big Date is not interested in you as an individual but based on overall trends, how much iron ore should be dug to match the need for steel 5 month and four days from now. Now once the right companies know that and act upon it, how will that in turn affect the trends...? It is in essence, the opposite of what you are thinking it is.
The apps themselves are relatively simple and do not cost much to develop. Decent requirements and some smart Ukrainians can create some whizzbang stuff for a few hundred thousand dollars. Where IBM will make billions is the implied and required data, services and infrastructure requirements that enable whizzbang apps to work. Data Architecture, new data warehouses/ODS, big data analytics, service-oriented architecture, ESBs and cloud servers, BPM managing workflows, etc. all are required to make the nifty apps work and many companies do not have most of the required elements to do it. Mobile apps typically require real-time, accurate data and most companies either have real-time, inaccurate data or batched accurate data but not both.
Super smart for IBM since they can walk around with the goal state in hand getting oohs and aahs from clients, a foolproof hardware solution and billions in back-end hardware, software and services work. A no-brainer for Apple since they don't have to do much of anything to enable this to happen, just stand with IBM and give corporate discounts on large orders.
Only MS has the weight to compete with this but talk about a war on multiple fronts. Google's not even in the picture. Even MS does not have the muscle to compete with IBM on most of the backend and services stuff.
Yep.
Boom ! Paradigm shift, right here and now.
edit: that's if the corporates see the advantages, of course.
Some IT advisors will fight tooth and nail against it - they simply won't have the control they've been able to wield in the past.
Ya know, the old "We know better. " thing.
You are right with your first answer!
These solutions will be sold to someone in the enterprise with a pay grade much higher than IT or the CIO/CTO.
Dick, you probably remember the '60s and '70s when the company president or the finance VP (did we even have C-suites back then) would come to the computer director (what is now called the IT manager) and ask timidly if it might be possible to get this or that new report...? The Computer Director would go away for a few days and come back with a budget of what it would cost..."Well, we will need to buy a new tape drive and hire a programmer to code it, and likely a new hard disc or two. Give me three to four months and I think we can give you want you want." That was a lot of power in IT's hands back then, and to some extent that's lingered on to today.
I am complete agreement with you all (Dick, Bob and Rob) on what this means for business and it's effect on the control IT has long enjoyed over the progress and direction of information. This is also a merging of the data held within a company to the Big data outside of a company (which represents the real world in which the company operates) in the decision making process of the company's leaders.
BOOM! Microsoft will counter with their typical saying of how corporations can't do business with Apple's toy iPad which is only good for Angry Birds. Microsoft's argument will be how Windows OS is the most powerful OS on the planet and it can do EVERYTHING a business really needs. And how iOS is too fragile a platform to run a business on (like trying to stuff an elephant into a potato sack). However, the Surface Pro is just right because it runs a full desktop version of Windows and it's not crippled by an iOS you can't handle individual files with and some weak ARM processor. Hell, everyone knows a desktop OS beats out a tablet OS any day of the week. There's no way Microsoft is going to take this lying down. They'll have to call this Apple/IBM corporate solution as the biggest corporate crap solution in the world. Just wait and see. Microsoft is probably already to put out some ads making fun of the Apple/IBM corporate solutions attempt.
Where IBM will make billions is the implied and required data, services and infrastructure requirements that enable whizzbang apps to work. Data Architecture, new data warehouses/ODS, big data analytics, service-oriented architecture, ESBs and cloud servers, BPM managing workflows, etc. all are required to make the nifty apps work and many companies do not have most of the required elements to do it. Mobile apps typically require real-time, accurate data and most companies either have real-time, inaccurate data or batched accurate data but not both.
Super smart for IBM since they can walk around with the goal state in hand getting oohs and aahs from clients, a foolproof hardware solution and billions in back-end hardware, software and services work. A no-brainer for Apple since they don't have to do much of anything to enable this to happen, just stand with IBM and give corporate discounts on large orders.
Only MS has the weight to compete with this but talk about a war on multiple fronts. Google's not even in the picture. Even MS does not have the muscle to compete with IBM on most of the backend and services stuff.
Quote:
Originally Posted by knowitall
Maybe in time to finally reduce MS in the work place.
IBM is almost as shrewd as MS in selling software to businesses, and IBM can actually write software (and make hardware) in a very good way.
But Apple should be very careful not to show to much to IBM.
There's lots of legitimate reasons not to be, but I'm a Big Blue fan - my Uncle was a 35 year IBM'er, they were where THE computing science action was in my youth (I'm ooold), etc. And for all the hostility to MS on these forums based on how they played back in the day, they also almost destroyed IBM in what I still feel was a play dirty fashion... ...acts IBM has never really fully recovered from. So an unabashed soft spot.
That said, IBM is in considerable trouble as an enterprise in the mid to longer term. You can blame (maybe successive) managements (going back to the one that came in to "save" the company from the Microsoft knife in the back coup), paradigm shifts coming too fast for any elephant to tap dance past, etc., etc., but there's negative mo and bad juju hanging over the company. With waves of staff cuts, divestments, pull-backs and layers of cruft in the century plus old hollowed out behemoth.
So, this stuff looks great, but from where I sit (just some guy with a keyboard way up in the mezzanine, but with binocs and who's been watching a long time FWIW), it's got the potential to be strategic for Apple in terms of Enterprise penetration, but if it doesn't meet the kind of hype in evidence in recent press releases and demos, Apple will still be a super successful growth company on an upward curve, while this is closer to a do or die scenario for Big Blue in terms of maintaining relevance in these areas of computing.
Go to Robert X. Cringely's site - which has been claiming IBM is in dire straits for a long while FWIW - and you'll find droves of current and former employees and customers largely agreeing.. ...and though I think he wasn't fully appreciating this initiative back in late October, his view on IBM is studied and he's been on it for years....
Quote:
IBM is hemorrhaging talent on a global scale across all divisions. It cannot retain good people. IBMers, as they call themselves, are underpaid, neglected, and have been abused for years. Most of IBM’s 400,000+ employees are no longer working for the company. Their jobs have become nightmares. They are prevented from doing good work. They know IBM is neglecting its customers, but they are powerless to do anything. The best they can do is to try to survive until reason returns to IBM’s leadership, if ever.
Every IBM staff cut now has a direct impact on revenue. After the 1Q 2014 earning miss IBM hit its sales support teams hard with layoffs, making it immediately much harder for IBM to sell products and services. Customers became frustrated and shopped elsewhere. In 3Q 2014 revenue took a big fall as a direct result of this earlier bonehead move. Formerly growing lines of business in IBM are now declining. After 10 years of continuous layoffs, any subsequent reduction has a direct and immediate impact on business. IBM can no longer afford to cut staff.
____________________
When it comes to software IBM is still very much in the 1970s. They sell the tools their customers need to write their own business applications. If you have a business and want to purchase finished software you can use to run your business, IBM will probably not be your first choice. While IBM’s software division has been growing nicely, its long-term potential is limited because it is not aligned to the needs of the market.
________________________
IBM should be partnering with Apple, Google, and yes – Microsoft. There should be no favorites. IBM already has a mobile deal of sorts with Apple but it is key to understand that it has so far resulted in a total head count increase in Cupertino of two workers, which shows what Apple thinks of IBM. Apple is not enough.
Still waiting for the Watson powered Siri for vertical markets where you can ask a technical question for your related field and get a useful answer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpamSandwich
I'm eagerly awaiting the day advanced Watson services are offered to give legal and financial advice that is finally unbiased.
To my knowledge, this strategic joint venture doesn't involve Watson nor integrating Siri with Watson smarts. The notion keeps coming up because it intuitively sounds good. And (in some way to come) could happen one suppose, tho Watson is not a massively parallel networked service for millions to simultaneously access at this point (I think). Ergo, Siri's not going on Jeopardy anytime soon, however appealing the potential seems....
...and would you want all your Siri questions to be answered "in the form of a question"??
To my knowledge, this strategic joint venture doesn't involve Watson nor integrating Siri with Watson smarts. The notion keeps coming up because it intuitively sounds good. And (in some way to come) could happen one suppose, tho Watson is not a massively parallel networked service for millions to simultaneously access at this point (I think). Ergo, Siri's not going on Jeopardy anytime soon, however appealing the potential seems....
...and would you want all your Siri questions to be answered "in the form of a question"??
Yes, to my knowledge there are no plans for Apple to use Watson, but it's a great idea just waiting to happen.
For those who've never dealt with IBM, here's a video that exemplifies the IBM corporate culture under T.J. Watson, Sr.:
Then this, whenT.J. Left NCR as head of Sales:
Thanks for the vid. Sent it my unk, who's a retired IBMer....
...and as for the contretemps between Watson and NCR that led to his being fired, there's a great historical followup to that story.... ....one that played out over a period of 70 or so years after the incident that led to IBM being formed....
...so this is a dead thread and a longish story (it's long been clear that enterprise stuff doesn't much engage the readership base here plus an old post by now), but will add this first bit of it:
Watson chose the name IBM specifically to trump NCR. That is, while NCR was a "national company building cash registers" - Watson's newer/better/faster company's goal from the beginning was to be an "international company building a whole variety of innovative business machines."
And the name did, in fact, become the actualized business plan....
Comments
And, having been there [IBM], walked the walk and talked the talk -- Tim, likely, understands the significance of all this better than any other competitive CEO!
The original saying was "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"... ... Long before AAPL and MSFT even existed!
[VIDEO]
Then this, whenT.J. Left NCR as head of Sales:
[QUOTE][B][U][SIZE=4]Thomas Watson Sr. was “fired” by NCR[/SIZE][/U][/B]
Thomas J. Watson Sr., former President of International Business Machines (IBM) Famously, NCR’s star sales executive Thomas Watson Sr. met a similar fate. In 1914, Watson argued that NCR’s dominant product, mechanical cash registers, would soon go obsolete. He proposed that NCR develop electric cash registers. Patterson resisted the idea. He demanded that Watson focus on nothing but sales and not worry about innovation. Following an argument at a meeting, Patterson dismissed Watson. In a fit of anger, Patterson had workers carry Watson’s desk outside and had it lit on fire. Thomas Watson Sr. was thus “fired.” Thomas Watson Sr. then joined a smaller competitor, Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R,) which soon grew into International Business Machines (IBM.) Thomas Watson Sr. led IBM for forty years and turned IBM into the world’s leading technology company.[/QUOTE]
I think you overlooked Google's search patent expiring in a couple years too... I think those mystery barges are really arks to hold all the rats when Google sinks slowly into the west.
You must troll the AI boards...
Instablock.
This is what IBM has been working on for some time; they call it "Big Data" and it allows the enterprise user that buys into the IBM deal to have access to a lot of data that IBM has been accumulating on big trends that have not generally emerged from the smoke of battle but are real-time trends. If an enterprise could see a trend two weeks or two months before their competition, they could have a huge advantage in business. This is not personal or individual data, or anything that granular, but regional or national trends which are more important for planning and responding. If you are being advised by IBM about your small business or personal finances, then you are being given an opportunity to participate by giving up your data to overlay on a ever-changing big-data map. While your personal data is not made part of the big data map, your interest in the big data influences the big data in itself...like opening a door in a big room will influence how the air mixes and moved in the interior space due to the rules of fluid dynamics.
Let me put it this way; Advertising Marketing wants to know your personal interests so you can be more directly marketed to you. Big Date is not interested in you as an individual but based on overall trends, how much iron ore should be dug to match the need for steel 5 month and four days from now. Now once the right companies know that and act upon it, how will that in turn affect the trends...? It is in essence, the opposite of what you are thinking it is.
Dick, you probably remember the '60s and '70s when the company president or the finance VP (did we even have C-suites back then) would come to the computer director (what is now called the IT manager) and ask timidly if it might be possible to get this or that new report...? The Computer Director would go away for a few days and come back with a budget of what it would cost..."Well, we will need to buy a new tape drive and hire a programmer to code it, and likely a new hard disc or two. Give me three to four months and I think we can give you want you want." That was a lot of power in IT's hands back then, and to some extent that's lingered on to today.
I am complete agreement with you all (Dick, Bob and Rob) on what this means for business and it's effect on the control IT has long enjoyed over the progress and direction of information. This is also a merging of the data held within a company to the Big data outside of a company (which represents the real world in which the company operates) in the decision making process of the company's leaders.
BOOM! Microsoft will counter with their typical saying of how corporations can't do business with Apple's toy iPad which is only good for Angry Birds. Microsoft's argument will be how Windows OS is the most powerful OS on the planet and it can do EVERYTHING a business really needs. And how iOS is too fragile a platform to run a business on (like trying to stuff an elephant into a potato sack). However, the Surface Pro is just right because it runs a full desktop version of Windows and it's not crippled by an iOS you can't handle individual files with and some weak ARM processor. Hell, everyone knows a desktop OS beats out a tablet OS any day of the week. There's no way Microsoft is going to take this lying down. They'll have to call this Apple/IBM corporate solution as the biggest corporate crap solution in the world. Just wait and see. Microsoft is probably already to put out some ads making fun of the Apple/IBM corporate solutions attempt.
/s
Whoooaa
That's a bad looking outfit, Dick !
For yourself, or ....
Where IBM will make billions is the implied and required data, services and infrastructure requirements that enable whizzbang apps to work. Data Architecture, new data warehouses/ODS, big data analytics, service-oriented architecture, ESBs and cloud servers, BPM managing workflows, etc. all are required to make the nifty apps work and many companies do not have most of the required elements to do it. Mobile apps typically require real-time, accurate data and most companies either have real-time, inaccurate data or batched accurate data but not both.
Super smart for IBM since they can walk around with the goal state in hand getting oohs and aahs from clients, a foolproof hardware solution and billions in back-end hardware, software and services work. A no-brainer for Apple since they don't have to do much of anything to enable this to happen, just stand with IBM and give corporate discounts on large orders.
Only MS has the weight to compete with this but talk about a war on multiple fronts. Google's not even in the picture. Even MS does not have the muscle to compete with IBM on most of the backend and services stuff.
Maybe in time to finally reduce MS in the work place.
IBM is almost as shrewd as MS in selling software to businesses, and IBM can actually write software (and make hardware) in a very good way.
But Apple should be very careful not to show to much to IBM.
There's lots of legitimate reasons not to be, but I'm a Big Blue fan - my Uncle was a 35 year IBM'er, they were where THE computing science action was in my youth (I'm ooold), etc. And for all the hostility to MS on these forums based on how they played back in the day, they also almost destroyed IBM in what I still feel was a play dirty fashion... ...acts IBM has never really fully recovered from. So an unabashed soft spot.
That said, IBM is in considerable trouble as an enterprise in the mid to longer term. You can blame (maybe successive) managements (going back to the one that came in to "save" the company from the Microsoft knife in the back coup), paradigm shifts coming too fast for any elephant to tap dance past, etc., etc., but there's negative mo and bad juju hanging over the company. With waves of staff cuts, divestments, pull-backs and layers of cruft in the century plus old hollowed out behemoth.
So, this stuff looks great, but from where I sit (just some guy with a keyboard way up in the mezzanine, but with binocs and who's been watching a long time FWIW), it's got the potential to be strategic for Apple in terms of Enterprise penetration, but if it doesn't meet the kind of hype in evidence in recent press releases and demos, Apple will still be a super successful growth company on an upward curve, while this is closer to a do or die scenario for Big Blue in terms of maintaining relevance in these areas of computing.
Go to Robert X. Cringely's site - which has been claiming IBM is in dire straits for a long while FWIW - and you'll find droves of current and former employees and customers largely agreeing.. ...and though I think he wasn't fully appreciating this initiative back in late October, his view on IBM is studied and he's been on it for years....
IBM is hemorrhaging talent on a global scale across all divisions. It cannot retain good people. IBMers, as they call themselves, are underpaid, neglected, and have been abused for years. Most of IBM’s 400,000+ employees are no longer working for the company. Their jobs have become nightmares. They are prevented from doing good work. They know IBM is neglecting its customers, but they are powerless to do anything. The best they can do is to try to survive until reason returns to IBM’s leadership, if ever.
Every IBM staff cut now has a direct impact on revenue. After the 1Q 2014 earning miss IBM hit its sales support teams hard with layoffs, making it immediately much harder for IBM to sell products and services. Customers became frustrated and shopped elsewhere. In 3Q 2014 revenue took a big fall as a direct result of this earlier bonehead move. Formerly growing lines of business in IBM are now declining. After 10 years of continuous layoffs, any subsequent reduction has a direct and immediate impact on business. IBM can no longer afford to cut staff.
____________________
________________________
http://www.cringely.com/2014/10/27/fix-ibm/
So if it doesn't succeed on a fairly large scale, some options on falling IBM stock might be in order....
Still waiting for the Watson powered Siri for vertical markets where you can ask a technical question for your related field and get a useful answer.
I'm eagerly awaiting the day advanced Watson services are offered to give legal and financial advice that is finally unbiased.
To my knowledge, this strategic joint venture doesn't involve Watson nor integrating Siri with Watson smarts. The notion keeps coming up because it intuitively sounds good. And (in some way to come) could happen one suppose, tho Watson is not a massively parallel networked service for millions to simultaneously access at this point (I think). Ergo, Siri's not going on Jeopardy anytime soon, however appealing the potential seems....
...and would you want all your Siri questions to be answered "in the form of a question"??
Yes, to my knowledge there are no plans for Apple to use Watson, but it's a great idea just waiting to happen.
For those who've never dealt with IBM, here's a video that exemplifies the IBM corporate culture under T.J. Watson, Sr.:
Then this, whenT.J. Left NCR as head of Sales:
Thanks for the vid. Sent it my unk, who's a retired IBMer....
...and as for the contretemps between Watson and NCR that led to his being fired, there's a great historical followup to that story.... ....one that played out over a period of 70 or so years after the incident that led to IBM being formed....
...so this is a dead thread and a longish story (it's long been clear that enterprise stuff doesn't much engage the readership base here plus an old post by now), but will add this first bit of it:
Watson chose the name IBM specifically to trump NCR. That is, while NCR was a "national company building cash registers" - Watson's newer/better/faster company's goal from the beginning was to be an "international company building a whole variety of innovative business machines."
And the name did, in fact, become the actualized business plan....