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Big Blue Apple

2014-07-28 09:04:39

Jul 16th 2014, 13:29 by M.G. | SAN FRANCISCO

WHEN he was the boss of Apple, Steve Jobs made little secret of his contempt

for the process of selling to big businesses. At one conference he even

sarcastically referred to chief information orifices when talking about the

purchasing habits of chief information officers. Jobs felt that the best way

for Apple to prosper was to focus on the consumer. But in recent years his

successor at the top of Apple, Tim Cook (pictured, on the right), has struck a

much friendlier tone about corporate buyers, regularly boasting that Apple s

products are now used by almost all of the world s largest companies.

They could soon be in use at many more firms. On July 15th Mr Cook and Virginia

Rometty (on the left), the boss of IBM, announced that their companies are

working together to develop more than 100 business-specific mobile applications

for Apple s iPhones and iPad tablet computers. IBM s employees will also serve

as a sales force for promoting the use of Apple s gear inside firms and provide

on-site service for its devices.

The deal is significant for three reasons. First, it brings together two firms

that were once arch enemies, which shows just how much times have changed in

the world of computing. Second, it underlines the extent to which devices

developed for consumers have caught on in the corporate world. And third, it

piles more pressure on firms such as Blackberry and Microsoft, which have

traditionally dominated the corporate-computing arena.

When Apple first moved into the personal-computer arena with its Macintosh

computers several decades ago, it portrayed IBM as an evil Big-Brother figure

in an iconic commercial. But IBM sold its personal-computer business to China s

Lenovo Group in 2005 and now concentrates on developing software and services

for companies. Its distribution network and prowess in areas such as big-data

analytics make it an ideal partner for Apple, which faces stiff competition in

the corporate arena from the likes of Google and Microsoft.

Both partners in the alliance could do with a fillip. IBM has seen eight

consecutive quarters of year-on-year revenue declines, raising questions about

whether Ms Rometty can revive its fortunes. And under Mr Cook, Apple has yet to

come up with a new blockbuster consumer product, though the firm s phones and

tablets continue to mint mountains of money for it.

For Apple, the deal, whose financial terms have not been revealed, offers a

neat way to profit from what is called consumerisation of information

technology the trend towards using personal devices for business. By

partnering with IBM, it can continue to focus most of its efforts on the

consumer market, while ensuring its corporate sales are not neglected. This

matters now that businesses and governments are spending around $11 billion a

year on iPads alone, representing about a third of Apple s total tablet sales,

according to Forrester Research.