I commented, perhaps over-enthusiastically, in the other thread, about what a great move this was for both parties. I stand by that, although I am definitely thinking about what it means in the longer term, not just the immediate impact of the deal.
The points that seem to be getting widely missed (including by Cringely) are that:
(a) Apple is clearly making a serious move into enterprise, where they have not fared well against Microsoft for a long time and, since the return of Jobs, positioned themselves as a primarily consumer-brand to avoid fighting that losing battle. This move demonstrates that they are now serious about being not just a consumer brand. Clearly, they really want to take some enterprise business away from the incumbents, which primarily means Microsoft.
Partnering with IBM gives them a ton of credibility that they did not have last week. The fact that it's a "partnership" is important. This is not just IBM building some apps and Apple taking a 30% cut. They don't need a partnership for that.
(b) It should be obvious to most people on HN regardless of what they think of the brand, that Apple isn't run by a bunch of idiotic short-term thinkers. Clearly this is part of a long term strategy. Getting iOS deeply embedded into enterprise is just the first move in making Apple part of the enterprise ecosystem. Selling more iPads is nice, but selling iPads, and OSX Servers, and cloud services, and apps at 30% markup per seat are all even nicer. Finding ways to lock those enterprise clients, with their huge budgets, into the Apple ecosystem for 10+ years is nicer still.
Of course IBM benefits from this as well, but as others have pointed out, IBM is mainly a consultancy service that deals with lots of partners, so this doesn't have much strategic value for them - they are just following where the money is going. The strategic importance to Apple however, is immense.
The points that seem to be getting widely missed (including by Cringely) are that:
(a) Apple is clearly making a serious move into enterprise, where they have not fared well against Microsoft for a long time and, since the return of Jobs, positioned themselves as a primarily consumer-brand to avoid fighting that losing battle. This move demonstrates that they are now serious about being not just a consumer brand. Clearly, they really want to take some enterprise business away from the incumbents, which primarily means Microsoft.
Partnering with IBM gives them a ton of credibility that they did not have last week. The fact that it's a "partnership" is important. This is not just IBM building some apps and Apple taking a 30% cut. They don't need a partnership for that.
(b) It should be obvious to most people on HN regardless of what they think of the brand, that Apple isn't run by a bunch of idiotic short-term thinkers. Clearly this is part of a long term strategy. Getting iOS deeply embedded into enterprise is just the first move in making Apple part of the enterprise ecosystem. Selling more iPads is nice, but selling iPads, and OSX Servers, and cloud services, and apps at 30% markup per seat are all even nicer. Finding ways to lock those enterprise clients, with their huge budgets, into the Apple ecosystem for 10+ years is nicer still.
Of course IBM benefits from this as well, but as others have pointed out, IBM is mainly a consultancy service that deals with lots of partners, so this doesn't have much strategic value for them - they are just following where the money is going. The strategic importance to Apple however, is immense.