Apple-IBM enterprise partnership the result of 8 months of wide-ranging talks

Posted:
in iPhone edited September 2014
The landmark enterprise tie-up between Apple and 103-year-old technology behemoth IBM, announced earlier this year, was not the first collaboration that Apple CEO Tim Cook and IBM chief Ginni Rometty discussed, according to a new report.




Though there is no word on what alternative alliances were on the table, a recent Forbes profile of Rometty does shed some light on the process that led to July's announcement. The companies were in negotiations for some eight months before the deal was made public, with input from a number of divisions and business areas.

"We had tons of meetings, and the good thing about it was the meetings were pretty broad-based--our engineering teams, their engineering teams, our industry leaders, their marketing and developers--as they thought through with us how we were thinking about various apps," IBM global business executive Bridget van Kralingen said.

Rometty envisions the Apple partnership playing a significant role in the reinvention of IBM, which --?with some 431,000 employees in 170 countries around the world --?is facing numerous competitive threats from more nimble rivals.

"Most mobile devices are [used for] 60% email," Rometty told the publication. "That's why when we did this Apple partnership, we said we could reimagine work. These devices can do way more."

According to van Kralingen, IBM and Apple are already working with "several large customers" to co-develop iOS apps. Those customers remain nameless, though they are likely to represent a "who's who" of the world's enterprises --?IBM has roots in 90 percent of the world's banks and 80 percent of the world's airlines, Forbes says, and is thought to touch some 70 percent of all enterprise data in one way or another.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    i guess ibm is thinking different
  • Reply 2 of 16

    Meanwhile... iOS 8.0.1 is breaking everything. Not good for enterprise Apple.

  • Reply 3 of 16
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    chandra69 wrote: »
    Meanwhile... iOS 8.0.1 is breaking everything. Not good for enterprise Apple.

    Is it breaking everything for you? It seems fine for me.
  • Reply 4 of 16
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Chandra69 View Post

     

    Meanwhile... iOS 8.0.1 is breaking everything. Not good for enterprise Apple.


     

    Most enterprises rarely install an update the day it is released. 

  • Reply 5 of 16
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Chandra69 View Post

     

    Meanwhile... iOS 8.0.1 is breaking everything. Not good for enterprise Apple.


     

    http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/24/6839347/fix-for-bad-ios-8-0-1-update

  • Reply 6 of 16
    "Most mobile devices are [used for] 60% email," Rometty told the publication. "That's why when we did this Apple partnership, we said we could reimagine work. These devices can do way more."

    I would love for Apple to get a better spam filter for their iCloud mail.
  • Reply 7 of 16
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by kfeltenberger View Post

     

     

    Most enterprises rarely install an update the day it is released. 


    Not the major release OSs.  Updates get installed. No one tests updates (?).

  • Reply 8 of 16
    This is a fantastic partnership.

    But thing back to the 1980's. Someone from that era would NEVER think this would happen. What an insane transition this industry has taken.
  • Reply 9 of 16
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Chandra69 View Post

     

    Not the major release OSs.  Updates get installed. No one tests updates (?).


     

    I don't know anyone in professional IT shops who doesn't test every update or patch that goes onto a deployed system.  Not doing so is a recipe for disaster and the unemployment lines.

  • Reply 10 of 16
    elrothelroth Posts: 1,201member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SinfoniaSam View Post



    This is a fantastic partnership.



    But thing back to the 1980's. Someone from that era would NEVER think this would happen. What an insane transition this industry has taken.

    I guess 2014 is not like 1984. (cue hammer throw at Google).

  • Reply 11 of 16
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    I would love for Apple to get a better spam filter for their iCloud mail.



    It would actually be cool if mail could be scanned and it could be determined by using artificial intelligence whether the sender was genuine or a spammer in advance.

  • Reply 12 of 16

    Ah, so is Apple getting the band back together with AIM?  ;)

     

    http://www.computerworld.com/article/2490028/apple-mac/ibm-and-apple-ties-go-way-back.html

  • Reply 13 of 16
    I hope the Apple/IBM magic produces the richness Davy Packard and Billy Hewlett produced the first night they camped out in Davy Packard's old man's garage.
  • Reply 14 of 16
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Chandra69 View Post

     

    Not the major release OSs.  Updates get installed. No one tests updates (?).


     

    What the hell are you talking about? Of course they do. Even *I*, as a consumer, don't install updates on day 1, no matter the company. I

    ll wait 24hrs at least, which is enough to get general feedback from the internet. Seems like fucking common sense. 

  • Reply 15 of 16
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post

     

     

    What the hell are you talking about? Of course they do. Even *I*, as a consumer, don't install updates on day 1, no matter the company. I

    ll wait 24hrs at least, which is enough to get general feedback from the internet. Seems like fucking common sense. 


     

    The bugs are so weird that I don't even know how they could not have occured before; yet that is seemingly what happened. Anyone who thinks Apple would have volountarily issued a bug fix that break cell connectivity is a fool. 

     

    QA at Apple must be scractching their head too. This thing actually went to the carriers for testing BEFORE being released and they also didn't flag anything.  Wonder if it is something the carriers added that broke things? 

     

    Bet, Apple's response team will be investigating this one pretty deep.

Sign In or Register to comment.