IBM Logo
A worker is pictured behind a logo at the IBM stand on the CeBIT computer fair in Hanover February 26, 2011. The world's largest IT fair CeBIT opens its doors on March 1 and runs through March 5. Credit: Reuters/Tobias Schwarz Reuters/Tobias Schwarz

Enterprise IT major IBM has clinched an exclusive partnership with Apple to sell its iPhones and iPads loaded with its applications to enterprise clients, reported Reuters. Many see this as an attempt by IBM to shift gears from hardware to software. The hardware business of IBM is not in an exciting phase.

Focus on Software

IBM is hoping that software sales will contribute heavily to its profits by 2015. Accordingly IBM will release more than 100 apps to target industry specific issues in banking, travel, retail, healthcare, transportation and telecommunications.

Breaking Barriers in Mobile Enterprise

In an interview to Reuters, Bridget van Kralingen, IBM's senior vice president informed that IBM is looking for irresistible workflow and processes. The design of apps will be helping every user in the organization. According to him, IBM wants to remove barriers in mobile enterprise that are bothering chief information officers in terms of security, utilizing cloud and installing apps in mobile devices.

Multiple Services

The IBM-Apple partnership will offer services geared for security, mobile device management and big data. It will cover cloud services optimized for iOS.

Boost for Apple

For Apple partnering with IBM will mean a lot. It will address many lingering concerns about its smartphone software security and data privacy. That Apple is getting the support of a veteran partner like IBM with a vast base in enterprise IT is a shot in the arm.

The report also quotes Tim Ghriskey, an investment expert in New York saying that the deal is an attempt by Apple and IBM to fork in a lion share of the enterprise corporate market which had been the underbelly of Blackberry so far.

Mobile Enterprise Market

In the mobile enterprise market both Apple and Samsung had been expanding their presence at the cost of Blackberry's share. But Microsoft Windows phones did not make any tangible headway. Apple's expansion on the enterprise is also driven by corporate policies like own you device (OYD).

Jolt for Google

Explaining the implications of the deal, Jonny Evans, a leading blogger in Computer World notes that the Apple-IBM deal is a double edged weapon and may weaken both Microsoft and Google in one shot, in the enterprise mobile market. With IBM's enterprise solutions coming on Apple's platform there will be a hike in consumer interest and that will lead to the diminishing appeal of Microsoft and Google mobile platforms, noted Evans.