Apple, IBM Ink Enterprise Mobility Deal: What MSPs Should Know

Keeping up with the analysis on the exclusive enterprise mobility deal between Apple (AAPL) and IBM can be a tedious task for managed services providers (MSPs). To help our readers out, we’ve compiled a list of must-read stories on the historic agreement.

In short, the new deal brings a new class of IBM business apps with big data and analytics capabilities to iOS. It also provides new packaged offerings from IBM for device activation, supply and management; a new AppleCare service and support offering; and new IBM cloud services optimized for iOS.

Will the deal change the game for enterprise mobility management (EMM) and bring your own device (BYOD)? Will it make Apple’s iPhone and iPad unbeatable as the standard devices of choice for businesses?

Here’s a list of stories you might want to take a look at if you want to learn more about IBM’s exclusive deal with Apple.

Biggest losers (and winner) in Apple-IBM enterprise alliance The surprise move to bring IBM software running on iPads and iPhones into the hallowed halls of corporatedom will hit some competitors hard. But there’s also one big winner, says ZDNet’s James Kendrick

Why the Apple-IBM deal matters. IDG News Service Deputy News Editor James Niccolai gives his insight in an article for PCWorld on why the Apple-IBM deal matters. He says the agreement could “make life a lot easier for IT staff at large enterprises.”

Apple and IBM: A winning combo for IT. Will the exlusive agreement between the two companies “change the dynamic of the enterprise mobility market”? Freelance journalist Ryan Faas seems to think so. In a story for Computerworld, Faas points out that “the joint press release the two companies issued doesn’t convey the potential scale of this partnership.”

5 Steve Jobs Disses on IBM Before Apple Teamed Up With an Old Rival. If Steve Jobs were still alive today, would Apple have partnered with IBM? Bloomberg News Tech Reporter Dina Bass gives her answer.

What’s missing from Apple’s big enterprise deal with IBM?. Think something’s missing from the deal? Networkworld blogger Fredric Paul agrees with you. He points out that “the deal is all about iOS, it makes no mention of the Mac, even as Apple’s traditional computing platform makes inroads into the corporate market.”

Apple-IBM Deal Snaps BlackBerry Rally on Turnaround Doubt. Bloomberg News reporters Eric Lam and Christina Pellegrini analyze the outcome of the Apple-IBM deal for BlackBerry. Will John Chen, BlackBerry’s CEO, be able to turn the company around?

Follow CJ Arlotta on Twitter @cjarlotta and Google+ for further updates on the story above — or if you just want to say hello.