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.