Apple and IBM today announced that they have reached the 100-app milestone in their mobile partnership, covering 60 professional roles across 14 different industries including government, transportation, healthcare and telecommunications.
Maribel Lopez, principal at Lopez Research said: "I think [Apple] brings the concept of simplicity (direct to task) and beauty to enterprise apps. IBM on the other hand understands business workflow, what generates productivity and back-end integration".
"Partnerships like this help companies create apps that were better than their PC predecessors because they can use more functions of the device -- camera, voice, messaging, location -- and they can do it anywhere since it’s [portable]".
Each app designed in this partnership is unique as development is undertaken in close collaboration with the people who will actually be using the app. Mobile development principles are applied after a specific problem and the nature of the workflow have been identified, with the ultimate goal being simplicity.
Speaking to TechCrunch, Katharyn White, vice president of IBM and Apple Partnership for IBM Global Business Services, highlighted a desire to change the way people work: "My motivation is to change the lives of people at work. The sub-benefit is that we are also changing the way we sell and changing our company".
Many of the apps work with back-end systems such as ERP and CRM, and IBM’s enterprise experience is vital in helping companies connect the apps to these systems. IBM also has plans to make use of its cognitive intelligence platform Watson, which could generate some exciting results.
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