If you use your smartphone with your business, the recent news stories of IBM’s partnership with Apple may have piqued your interest.
IBM and Apple started out as rivals for the PC market in the very early 80s before it became Mac vs Windows. While IBM left the personal computer space over the next few decades, they continued to be a very important player in enterprise environments.
In the last 7 years, smartphones and tablets have become one of the fastest growing markets for what are really still personal computers. However, even though we’re more likely to turn to a smartphone to check our personal email, or use a tablet to surf the web, the support for these devices in a corporate environment is still a huge area of growth opportunity.
With Apple’s strength being consumer hardware and IBM still being a well-known enterprise systems developer, you’re likely to see a much more robust approach to helping companies supply, manage and support devices like iPhones and iPads.
When you’re dealing with hundreds or thousands or even tens of thousands of corporate employees, often across different locations and even time zones, the ability to manage user accounts and access from those highly-mobile devices can be a nightmare for your company’s IT department.
