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IBM and Apple Join Forces to Sell MacBooks

Humbled and in need of visibility, IBM partners with Apple

Aug 6, 2015 07:40 GMT  ·  By
No more middle-fingering will come from Apple from now on
   No more middle-fingering will come from Apple from now on

After having sold the ThinkPad division to Lenovo in 2006, not much is left for IBM to capitalize on consumer market products these days. However, in sign of gratitude to such a worthy opponent, IBM decided to lay down its arms and join Apple in building better products.

The rivalry between IBM and Apple has reached legendary status since Steve Jobs declared his visceral hate for the Big Blue and spent his entire youth trying to destroy the IBM PC monopoly in the '80s.

However, times have changed and after nearly 30 years, IBM lost its PC monopoly, sold its last consumer-based products to the Chinese, and dedicated almost its entire funds to research, security and communication contracts with the US government, moving away from what Jobs was hating in the first place.

Jobs and Apple experienced a tumultuous fate as well. After leaving Apple for a couple of years, he returned to lift the company from the free fall it was experiencing at the end of the '90s to turn it into one of the most glorified brands in existence today. While IBM moved away from the limelight, Apple is still at the top of its fame four years after Steve Jobs passed away.

After 30 years of rivalry, IBM and Apple are officially friends

In this regard, IBM and Apple decided to put away their former quarrels and took steps in working together on common projects. It is considered that half of IBM's staff is now using MacBooks, while 110.000 iPads, iPhones and MacBooks are continuously being shipped to IBM's workforce in a gesture of friendship between the two bitter rivals.

Although it is unknown if IBM will provide any Apple MacBook services in the future, it's clear that the Apple brand is already an ominous presence at IBM’s HQ. In response, Apple employees are already working on iOS apps for IBM clients like Citigroup, Sprint, and many others.

This radical change of facts is the direct result of IBM moving away from consumer markets into cloud computing, stress data analytics and security, which eroded IBM’s image as a popular brand. This decision affected the company's revenues on the long run, forcing it to focus on more corporate and research-oriented business plans that do not provide the same income as mass produced consumer goods. Maybe this time IBM will find a way to return to its former glory, while being on better terms with its previous rivals as well.