It looks like the age-old computer rivalry between Apple and Big Blue has finally come to an end — tech giants Apple and IBM announced a new partnership Tuesday to develop and distribute enterprise apps for businesses.
Apple's Tim Cook and IBM's Virginia Rometty appeared on CNBC to talk about the collaboration where IBM will be designing enterprise-level apps exclusively for Apple to distribute.
A joint-statement lists four "core capabilities" that the duo is looking to leverage to change the business game: more than 100 industry-specific business apps for the iPhone and iPad, IBM-based cloud services for iOS devices, AppleCare service at the enterprise level and packaged offerings from IBM for devices.
The press release touts combining IBM's big data and analytic capabilities with Apple's "legendary" consumer experience, hardware and software. But what does this mean for the every day consumer? Pretty much nothing. This partnership primarily benefits businesses.
In an interview with ComputerWorld, an analyst notes that: "This is all about Apple getting into the enterprise. Apple has market-owning strategies in the consumer space, but it's not been able to convert that into strategies for the enterprise. Now Apple has an advocate in the enterprise."
This partnership shows that the two companies have come a long ways from their rivalry when computing was in its infancy. Steve Jobs wasn't exactly known to be the biggest fan of IBM.
He used a commercial at least once to get that message out, like in Apple's iconic 1984 advertisement meant to paint IBM as a big-brother-like figure and Apple as a sort of savior. (Via YouTube / EveryAppleAd)
Other times he candidly insulted them in interviews like a 1985 interview with Playboy where Jobs told the magazine that the world would enter a computer "Dark Ages" if IBM were to become successful.
And once he managed to be even more straightforward in letting people know how he felt about his rival company. (Via Google+ / Andy Hertzfeld)
It looks like the two companies are on good terms now, though. News of the partnership boosted Apple's stock by about 1.6% and IBM's by 2% in after-hours trading.
