Apple partners with IBM

Time has an article by Victor Luckerson about unlikely partners:

In a surprise announcement, Apple and IBM said they are teaming up to bring iPhone and iPad software and hardware to business customers, even though the companies were heated rivals during the early PC days
Under the deal, IBM will develop iOS apps serving the retail, banking, insurance, transportation, and telecommunications industries under the umbrella of IBM MobileFirst for iOS Solutions. An end-to-end enterprise platform called IBM MobileFirst Platform is also in the works. The companies will also launch an enterprise version of AppleCare, Apple’s customer support service. IBM has agreed to pitch these new services, as well as iPhones and iPads themselves, to its business clients around the world. The first products developed under the partnership will launch this fall.
“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,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
“We are delighted to be teaming with Apple, whose innovations have transformed our lives in ways we take for granted, but can’t imagine living without,” IBM CEO Ginni Rometty offered. “Our alliance will bring the same kind of transformation to the way people work, industries operate and companies perform.”
Re/code reports that iPhones currently account for more than eighty percent of smartphones being used at US corporations, while iPads make up over seventy percent of tablets. The partnership will give Apple a further leg up against competitors like Google, which is integrating bring-your-own-device technology into the newest version of its Android software, and struggling enterprise phone maker BlackBerry. BlackBerry stock dropped about four percent in after-hours trading after the news of the partnership.

Rico says that, if this doesn't drive a stake through BlackBerry's heart, he doesn't know what will... (And isn't it amazing, for those of us who remember the past, to think of Apple and IBM actually cooperating?)