Apple CEO Tim Cook makes surprise appearance at Cisco's annual sales conference

Posted:
in General Discussion edited September 2015
In the wake of Apple's newly announced enterprise partnership with Cisco, Chief Executive Tim Cook appeared onstage at Cisco's annual "GSX" Global Sales Experience in front of 20,000 employees to discuss the news.


Photo via Jose Alfredo.


Cook took the stage in Las Vegas with Cisco's own newly appointed executive chairman, John Chambers, where the two discussed the newfound Apple-Cisco partnership.

Apple's CEO made it clear that he envisions this partnership with Cisco for the long haul, telling salespeople in attendance that he wants Apple to have a relationship with Cisco "long after I am dead and gone," as quoted by Negisa Taymourian.

Just before Cook took the stage, Apple and Cisco announced they will partner on a new effort to optimize networks for iPhones, iPads and iOS apps. Apple's products will boast deeper integration with Cisco's industry standard voice and video communications products, ensuring that iOS devices work more efficiently.

Cisco is the largest provider of enterprise networking devices and networked services around the world. A strategic alliance with Apple gives the company a leg up in Apple's growth in the enterprise, particularly as "bring your own device" trends grow among businesses.


Photo via Eric J. Bell.


At Cisco GSX, Cook said the alignment with Cisco is "the holy grail" of partnerships, according to Brad Failor.

Those in attendance who posted on Twitter were taken by complete surprise when Cook took the stage. Chambers was also said to have received a standing ovation from enthusiastic Cisco salespeople.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24
    Wonder what this means for Sept 9...?
  • Reply 2 of 24
    mubailimubaili Posts: 453member
    Chambers had been Cisco for too many years to count. He is no longer the ceo. Come on AI.
  • Reply 3 of 24
    | Cook took the stage in Las Vegas with Cisco's own newly appointed CEO, John Chambers,
    | where the two discussed the newfound Apple-Cisco partnership.

    This news is going to come as quite a blow to (I guess the former) CEO Chuck Robbins.
  • Reply 4 of 24
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member

    For those trolls who preach the FUD of Apple’s slow decline... you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Apple is just getting started. 

  • Reply 5 of 24
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member

    Apple's CEO made it clear that he envisions this partnership with Cisco for the long haul, telling salespeople in attendance that he wants Apple to have a relationship with Cisco "long after I am dead and gone,"...

     

    And AAPL will get slammed tomorrow. The headline: "Tim Cook is dying!"

  • Reply 6 of 24
    cornchipcornchip Posts: 1,945member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lkrupp View Post

     

    For those trolls who preach the FUD of Apple’s slow decline... you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Apple is just getting started. 


     

    When I tell this to people it just falls on deaf ears. They act like I'm speaking some kind of alien language. So wrapped up in the ways of the old, Wintel world. It's changing and they just don't see it coming. At all.

  • Reply 7 of 24
    danielswdanielsw Posts: 906member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by cornchip View Post

     

     

    When I tell this to people it just falls on deaf ears. They act like I'm speaking some kind of alien language. So wrapped up in the ways of the old, Wintel world. It's changing and they just don't see it coming. At all.




    If they refuse to see or listen, then they deserve their fates.

  • Reply 8 of 24
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    lkrupp wrote: »
    For those trolls who preach the FUD of Apple’s slow decline... you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Apple is just getting started. 

    Exactly. There's a very large sum of money to be made in the enterprise arena, and a lot faster than selling one iPhone at-a-time to individual consumers. I think we can all see a huge resurgence of the Mac in the near future. Already begun from the unit numbers over the last couple years, but once it gets into full swing, I think the Mac alone, not even the focus of these big partnerships, is going to surprise us and shock Apple's PC competitors.

    Apple has nothing short of total domination on its agenda, the likes of which will rewrite the history of several industries.
  • Reply 9 of 24
    dreyfus2dreyfus2 Posts: 1,072member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     

    Really does make me think.  I would think something like this would have been saved for the event.  There must be something even bigger to be announced


     

    Why would the consumer electronics journalists and private iPhone users care about that? This is about corporate IT.

     

    I have seen more than one big company where the networking / infrastructure people were the biggest opponents of BYOD and/or non-Windows platforms. Having CISCO on board can make a huge difference here.

  • Reply 10 of 24
    Wonder what this means for Sept 9...?

    sog35 wrote: »
    Really does make me think.  I would think something like this would have been saved for the event.  There must be something even bigger to be announced

    Hmm.... Wasn't Cisco big in the cable set-top box business at one time?
  • Reply 11 of 24

    I'm not too sure of what this partnership actually means to both companies.  It's definitely a positive story for Apple and Cisco and helps them both -- probably helps Apple more than Cisco near term, since Apple seems to be taking the Enterprise space more seriously lately.

     

    I worked for Cisco for many years and lived through their failed attempts at bringing an "enterprise-class" tablet to market, which was a horrible piece of hardware running Android 2.x while the rest of the world was already on 3.x.  It was called the CIUS (as in "see us") and was eventually EOL'd. Cisco went on to develop some other voice/video endpoints that were also Android-based.  They still sell those AFAIK since they are relatively new.

     

    Cisco also offers several iOS apps for their collaboration products (Jabber, Webex, etc.) so I can't think of what else they'll do other than maybe add some enhanced network visibility and programmability for iOS devices through some of their WiFi and networking products.  A good idea might be to develop a "base station" with a handset, speaker and maybe a keypad so that an enterprise user could dock their iPhone or iPad via Lightning interface into the unit and run some Cisco voice and/or video app and use it more like a traditional desk phone but with some tight software integration.

     

    As far as Tim Cook showing up at the Cisco sales meeting, it's really not that inconvenient for someone like Cook to fly to Vegas for a quick appearance and head right back to CA.  It's definitely worth the PR value -- there's a bunch of headlines about this partnership.  Maybe Cook will mention this again on Sept 9th but I'm not really expecting to see any new Apple products related to it.  Sounds more like mutual "hooks" into some of both company's products for now.

     

    Great move by Apple though -- keep driving that Enterprise messaging!

  • Reply 12 of 24
    Quote:

    Hmm.... Wasn't Cisco big in the cable set-top box business at one time?

     

    Yes but they recently sold off that business to a company for $600M (after originally having paid $6.9B for it)... John Chambers must have been advised by Ballmer on that acquisition.

  • Reply 13 of 24
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    Goodness. Apple isn't playing

    Something big is going on.....

    Can't wait for Sept. 9th!
  • Reply 14 of 24
    ds92jzds92jz Posts: 90member

    Poor Michael Dell....

  • Reply 15 of 24
    danvmdanvm Posts: 1,400member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     

    Cisco

    IBM

    Microsoft

     

    all falling into line.

     

    You wanna make money?

    You wanna preserve your revenue streams?

     

    Then partner with Apple.  Don't try to steal their ideas or compete with them.


    That's, maybe, one side of the story.  On the other side, Apple couldn't make a dent in the enterprise by themselves, so they need Cisco, IBM and MS to succeed.  Let's see in the next years how those partnerships worked. 

  • Reply 16 of 24
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member

    Something to do with Cisco New Video Codec? ( I hope so )

     

    Cisco branded Enterprise Quality AirPort Express? ( Dreaming )

     

    Honestly I am no expert in Networking Equipment. I know Cisco make some of the best ISP Grade Routers. But the world is moving towards SDN ( Software Defined Network ), in SME Market they are being hammered by many of the new comer in WiFi Segment.

     

    Much like IBM, Cisco is like a dying business, but unlike IBM has Watson, which I think is properly at least 4 - 5 years ahead of competition.    Please correct me if I am wrong.

     

    *By dying I dont mean in coming 4 - 5 years time. It will likely be here long enough. But most of the IBM product i saw were simply crap, and the only reason they survived is their brand name and no one get fired for using them. Similar to Cisco.

  • Reply 17 of 24
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     

    Cisco

    IBM

    Microsoft

     

    all falling into line.

     

    You wanna make money?

    You wanna preserve your revenue streams?

     

    Then partner with Apple.  Don't try to steal their ideas or compete with them.


     

    Haha, I like how you think!

  • Reply 18 of 24
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ApplesWay View Post

     

    I'm not too sure of what this partnership actually means to both companies.  It's definitely a positive story for Apple and Cisco and helps them both -- probably helps Apple more than Cisco near term, since Apple seems to be taking the Enterprise space more seriously lately.

     

    As far as Tim Cook showing up at the Cisco sales meeting, it's really not that inconvenient for someone like Cook to fly to Vegas for a quick appearance and head right back to CA.  It's definitely worth the PR value -- there's a bunch of headlines about this partnership.  Maybe Cook will mention this again on Sept 9th but I'm not really expecting to see any new Apple products related to it.  Sounds more like mutual "hooks" into some of both company's products for now.

     

    Great move by Apple though -- keep driving that Enterprise messaging!


     

    I see Tim's hand in the moves by Apple to be aggressive about enterprise. Steve wanted these customers, but never could quite nail it like this. Unlike the quoted poster, I do see a connection of some sort between this announcement and Sept 9th., but have no idea how it will announced or what products it affects.

  • Reply 19 of 24
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post

    Apple and Cisco announced they will partner on a new effort to optimize networks for iPhones, iPads and iOS apps.

     

    Once again (like the IBM partnership) it's the iOS devices that get all the love.

     

    Are the Mac based products a stealth offering? I'm thinking of the laptops primarily.

  • Reply 20 of 24

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