Apple And IBM Deal Is Not A Game Changer For Enterprise

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The Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) – International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) deal is being overplayed by the market today. The announcement, which came as a surprise to just about everyone, is full of human drama, given the companies long rivalry, and blue-sky navel-gazing, what if enterprise solutions worked like iTunes?, but its short on actual substance.

There’s an incremental positive for both Apple and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) here, but it’s not the revolution that Twitter invented yesterday afternoon. Three of Nomura’s finest analysts see the move as less of a game-changer and reckons it will have little substantial effect on companies like VMWare Inc. (NYSE:VMW) and MobileIron (NASDAQ:MOBL).

Apple-IBM deal caters to small number of customers

The problem with the deal, according to the Nomura run down, is that International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) doesn’t produce enough software to meet the needs of everyone. Big businesses need more than just IBM software in order to run its internal analytics. That means that only businesses with a very small range of needs will be satisfied with the bundle the company is offering on iOS devices.

“We do not view 100 vertical market apps and analytics on mobile devices as sufficient to dominate a market where third-party apps are likely coming from every corner of the market and essentially all software vendors are now marketing mobile first as a key component of their software delivery strategy,” wrote Rick Sherlund, Frederick Grieb and Kashif Sheikh in the report.

At the end of the day, it seems, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is not going to be developing software for enterprise. The company has just entered into a partnership to have International Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) sell the iPhone and iPad for it. It’s closer to a deal with Wal-Mart more than it is a serious challenge to the structure of the industry.

Market goes wild for Apple-IBM alliance

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) may be heading into the enterprise market hand in hand, but that doesn’t mean much for either company according to the new report. The deal, which shocked investors when it was announced on Tuesday afternoon, is being traded on like nothing else on Wednesday. Stock in both companies has jumped on the announcement while Blackberry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), (TSE:BB) shares have been literally decimated by the news.

Mobileiron Inc (NASDAQ:MOBL), a big player in the enterprise mobile device management business, saw its stock fall by more than 5% as a result of the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) IBM announcement. Apple does what it does well, unfortunately for a lot of people, enterprise software isn’t in its bag of tricks. The closest the company gets to an enterprise solution is the availability of Excel on the iPad.

The Cupertino company doesn’t always follow through on its proclamations, and this deal may be no different. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) has gravitated toward a more user friendly way of bundling its enterprise apps. In order to spice up the deal it’s going to sell the software on iPhones. There’s little revolution in it, and the cannibalization of Blackberry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) stock seems a little extreme.

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