Apple Teams Up With Former Rival IBM On Business Apps

By Stephanie Federico / NPR

Published July 15, 2014 at 1:09 PM PDT

This story was published more than 10 years ago.

Apple announced on Tuesday a deal with the company it once painted as Big Brother in its infamous 1984 ad: IBM.

The former rivals agreed on an exclusive partnership to work together on new business applications for Apple's iPads and iPhones. As part of the deal, IBM will also sell iPhones and iPads with the software to businesses all over the world.

In a press release, Apple CEO Tim Cooke said:

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"For the first time ever we're putting IBM's renowned big data analytics at iOS users' fingertips, which opens up a large market opportunity for Apple. This is a radical step for enterprise and something that only Apple and IBM can deliver."

NPR's Steve Henn tells All Things Considered that Apple and IBM are "sort of natural partners today," as smartphones and tablets have replaced PCs as the dominant platform in personal computing.

"Apple excels at making devices that people like to use, but it has never really excelled in enterprise software, something that IBM is really excellent at," he says. Steve says the companies will be a "formidable force" in the enormous corporate enterprise market.

The apps are expected to be released this fall.