Apple CEO Tim Cook with IBM CEO Ginni Rometty
Posted on 05/28/2015 11:23:49 AM PDT by Swordmaker
Apple CEO Tim Cook with IBM CEO Ginni Rometty
After inking a deal with Apple to push iOS devices and enterprise apps to its customers, IBM today started offering all employees Macs for the first time. We’ve seen the official IBM notice, and several IBM employees on Twitter are praising the decision after years of PC hell:
John Collins (@johncollins2014) May 28, 2015
Benefits of #IBM #Apple partnership. Employees can now choose between MAC or PC. #betterwaytowork
In a memo to employees, IBM notes that starting today all employees (not just some select developers like in the past) can pick from a MacBook Pro, Macbook Air, or a PC when setting up a new or refreshed workstation. The machines will include new software for security, Wi-Fi, and VPN out of the box so employees just have to connect to the internet to get started, according to the memo. IBM notes that it currently has around 15,000 Macs deployed through its BYOD program, but plans to deploy around 50,000 Macbooks by the end of the year. That, according to the memo, would make IBM the biggest “Mac shop” around, and the company said it’s sharing what it learns through the new deployment with Apple as Apple assists through its device enrollment program.
Apple first announced the partnership with IBM last summer that would see the companies develop MobileFirst for iOS apps for enterprise customers in addition to pushing iOS devices and enterprise AppleCare support. It’s probably not a good look to be selling Apple services from a ThinkPad, but the change is a company wide initiative and not just for IBM employees pushing MobileFirst for iOS. Employees will be able to switch to company-issued Macs whenever replacing an older machine as normal.
Apple first started rolling out the apps in December with solutions for banking, retail, insurance, financial services, telecommunications, government and airlines. It’s since launched several more MobileFirst solutions bringing the total up to 22 and just this month started bringing Apple Watch support to several of the apps.
IBM no longer owns the ThinkPad. It’s a Lenovo (Chinese) product.
They don’t do PCs at all, so why not?
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About 30-40% of Intel employees now use Macs.
Office machines are all PC but for home use.
Executive woman dressed professionally with a man's-cut jacket.
Executive man dressed like a ten year old boy.
Expanding the rest of the social equation is left as a class exercise.
Every one is sick and tired of the nonstop nonsense of mswindows.
A bit harsh there. That’s Armonk button-down vs California slob. Look how far IBM has come — she doesn’t have a black blazer over the white blouse.
Given his druthers it would be as a ten-year-old girl.
I seem to recall that IBM was allowing some Mac usage during the PowerPC era.
What this thread needs is Apple’s 1984 Big Brother ad.
(That was over 30 years ago. No wonder my beard is gray).
They used them in their advertising department, if I recall correctly.
"Nice to see you. It only took you about 30 years to get here."
This doesn’t sound right. My IBM Rep. has been using an Apple Notebook for the last three years. When we asked her about it she said it was part of IBM’s “new” BYOD program. IBM gave each employee a certain dollar amount and let them pick their own compute device. IBM had largely made all their apps web enabled so PC, Mac didn’t matter.
IBM is expanding the program to internal desks as well as outside reps, as I understand it. They plan on deploying up to 50,000 Macs before the end of the year. I suspect they've found that Macs are more economical to operate in the long run.
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