CUPERTINO, Calif., and ARMONK, N.Y. — Apple® and IBM have announced a partnership with the goal of improving enterprise mobility through a new set of business apps that bring IBM’s big data and analytics capabilities to iPhone® and iPad®.
The companies said the partnership aims to address key business mobility challenges through four core capabilities:
• More than 100 industry-specific enterprise solutions including native apps, developed from the ground up, for iPhone and iPad;
• Unique IBM cloud services optimized for iOS, including device management, security, analytics, and mobile integration;
• A new AppleCare® service and support offering tailored to the needs of the enterprise; and
• New packaged offerings from IBM for device activation, supply, and management.
The companies said the new IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions will be built in a collaboration that draws on the strengths of each company: IBM’s big data and analytics capabilities, with more than 100,000 IBM industry and domain consultants and software developers behind it, together with Apple’s consumer experience, hardware and software integration, and developer platform. The combination will create apps designed to address specific aspects of how businesses and employees work using iPhone and iPad, to enable companies to achieve new levels of efficiency, effectiveness, and customer satisfaction.
As part of the IBM MobileFirst for iOS agreement, IBM will also sell iPhones and iPads with the industry-specific solutions to business clients worldwide.
“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.”
“Mobility — combined with the phenomena of data and cloud — is transforming business and our industry in historic ways, allowing people to re-imagine work, industries, and professions,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president, and CEO. “This alliance with Apple will build on our momentum in bringing these innovations to our clients globally, and leverages IBM’s leadership in analytics, cloud, software, and services. We are delighted to be teaming with Apple, whose innovations have transformed our lives in ways we take for granted, but can’t imagine living without. Our alliance will bring the same kind of transformation to the way people work, industries operate, and companies perform.”
For more information on the new Apple and IBM solutions, visit www.ibm.com/MobileFirstForiOS or www.apple.com/ipad/business.
Publication date: 7/28/2014
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