Apple and IBM: from flipping the bird to partnership
There’s a famous picture of Steve Jobs flipping the bird at an IBM sign:
Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original members of the Macintosh team, first published the photo to his Google page.
Then there was an Apple TV commercial depicting IBM as Big Brother from the book, 1984.
An annoucer intones, “On January 24, Apple computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”
But that was when Apple and IBM hated each other, and competed for the desktop computer market.
Now, Apple needs IBM’s expertise as it tries to get companies to order more iPhones and iPads. Apple and IBM say IBM will develop more than 100 business apps for Apple.
Apple hopes the partnership will answer security concerns, and give CEOs one more reason to buy Apple.
“It’s not just – hey the employees prefer it. But it also means, hey, the business advantages might even be stronger if I go with the Apple solution,” says Forrester analyst Frank Gillett.
As for IBM, it gets to be part of a winning team. Plus, IBM’s app designers will have greater access to Apple software.
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