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Apple and IBM Deliver First Wave of IBM MobileFirst for iOS Apps

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Re: Apple and IBM Deliver First Wave of IBM MobileFirst for iOS Apps

#5
post #2

I think I'm missing something. These sounds like generic industry apps, but Fortune 500 companies don't use generic apps, they use stuff tailored to their business. It says they are customizable, but that's a lot easier said than done.

Tailored is exactly what IBM wants. They are basically a consulting and services company nowadays, having let go most of their hardware divisions after analyzing their business and deciding they weren't profitable. They will be exceedingly happy to sell you consultants time to tailor the apps for you, in fact, if the app didn't require tailoring, they probably wouldn't want it in their line up.

Re: Apple and IBM Deliver First Wave of IBM MobileFirst for iOS Apps

#6
Based on the IBM pages at http://www.ibm.com/mobilefirst/us/en/mobilefirst-for-ios.htm... these don't look like full apps that you could use right now.

I guess that IBM are planning to use this as a framework to build custom apps on. And the publicity from this announcement is supposed to help them get more companies asking them for apps.

Re: Apple and IBM Deliver First Wave of IBM MobileFirst for iOS Apps

#7
IBM is playing to two of it's strengths here -- decades of enterprise sales relationships and development manpower, largely based in India. In effect, they're becoming a sales and System Integration channel for Apple. In return they get to give their customers mobile apps that put lipstick on the pigs (Mainframe software, WebSphere/J2EE apps).

What I find amusing is how IBM is spinning this into a "Data and Analytics" play. Granted, it is a bit of marketing BS. But I also suspect that they are trying to please the stock market analysts. It would probably be a highlight in their next earnings call.

Re: Apple and IBM Deliver First Wave of IBM MobileFirst for iOS Apps

#8
post #5
post #2

I think I'm missing something. These sounds like generic industry apps, but Fortune 500 companies don't use generic apps, they use stuff tailored to their business. It says they are customizable, but that's a lot easier said than done.

Tailored is exactly what IBM wants. They are basically a consulting and services company nowadays, having let go most of their hardware divisions after analyzing their business and deciding they weren't profitable. They will be exceedingly happy to sell you consultants time to tailor the apps for you, in fact, if the app didn't require tailoring, they probably wouldn't want it in their line up.

I'm an IBM consultant. A large portion of our revenue comes from services. I'd say it would be correct to classify IBM as a Consulting and Services company now. More so than software and hardware. We still do a lot of software but the bread and butter is consulting. We're basically exiting low margin hardware businesses. Also the original comment is correct that most enterprises don't want out of box solutions. They almost always want something customized.

I still don't know very much about the IBM and Apple deal. It almost seems like Apple is trying to leverage the IBM brand to get into enterprise business but we'll have to see how it plays out.

Re: Apple and IBM Deliver First Wave of IBM MobileFirst for iOS Apps

#9
The next generation of big enterprise application platforms needs to target mobile and IBM is trying to get ahead of the curve. The more interesting part is that Apple is now playing along. In the Steve Jobs' days, they never would have paid much attention to the enterprise.

Re: Apple and IBM Deliver First Wave of IBM MobileFirst for iOS Apps

#10
post #5
post #2

I think I'm missing something. These sounds like generic industry apps, but Fortune 500 companies don't use generic apps, they use stuff tailored to their business. It says they are customizable, but that's a lot easier said than done.

Tailored is exactly what IBM wants. They are basically a consulting and services company nowadays, having let go most of their hardware divisions after analyzing their business and deciding they weren't profitable. They will be exceedingly happy to sell you consultants time to tailor the apps for you, in fact, if the app didn't require tailoring, they probably wouldn't want it in their line up.

I'm amazed by that decision (to leave the hardware & software biz). Look at Apple -- that's pretty much all they do, and they have a $650B market cap, 4x that of IBM.
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