Apple, IBM to develop cloud services & Apps for iPhones, iPads

Tech giants Apple and IBM today announced their partnership for creating business apps and cloud services, among others, for iPhones and iPads.

The agreement will also allow the New York-based software maker to sell iPhones and iPads with solutions targeting enterprise clients.

"The exclusive partnership teams market-leading strengths of each company to transform enterprise mobility through a new class of business apps-bringing IBM's big data and analytics capabilities to iPhone and iPad," Apple said in a statement late yesterday.

Under the arrangement, IBM will develop a new class of more than 100 industry-specific enterprise solutions including native apps, "exclusively" for iPhones and iPads, it added.

Besides, IBM cloud services will be optimised for iOS, including device management, security, analytics and mobile integration, a new AppleCare service and support will be offered for enterprise, it said.

IBM will also provide a packaged offering for device activation, supply and management.

"As part of the exclusive IBM MobileFirst for iOS agreement, IBM will also sell iPhones and iPads with the industry-specific solutions to business clients worldwide," California-based Apple said.

Both the firms will collaborate to build IBM MobileFirst for iOS Solutions, a new class of made-for-business apps that will target specific industry issues in retail, healthcare, banking, travel and transportation, telecommunications and insurance, among others, and will become available starting this fall and into 2015.

IBM's MobileFirst Platform for iOS will deliver services required for end-to-end enterprise capability, from analytics, workflow and cloud storage, to fleet-scale device management, security and integration.

Enhanced mobile management includes a private app catalogue, data and transaction security services and productivity suite for all IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions.

In addition to on-premise software solutions, all these services will be available on Bluemix-IBM's development platform on the IBM Cloud Marketplace.