IBM is reported to be installing up to 50,000 Macs during 2015, according to an internal memo seen by 9to5 Mac. For the company that created the PC standard, and was sworn enemy of the 1980’s Apple, this is a remarkable turnaround, and will have Steve Jobs laughing in his grave.
Those of a more mature generation will well remember the launch of the IBM PC in 1981, and Apple’s “Welcome IBM, Seriously” response. Even more iconic was the 1984 ad to announce the Macintosh, with its seried ranks of English skinheads staring at big brother - a thinly-disguised reference to IBM.
Despite this, the PC effectively won for most of the ensuing two decades, relegating the Mac to a creative niche - albeit a large one. However IBM did not emerge as the beneficiary, swiftly losing control of its platform, thanks to the sleight of hand of Bill Gates, and the outsourced components used to create its PC template. An abortive effort to regain control with a more proprietary hardware platform - PS/2 - and operating system - OS/2 - proved too late - the cat was out of the bag.
IBM effectively gave up on the PC in 2005 when it sold the business to Lenovo, marking also what history may see as a defining moment in the eastwards shift of the global economic centre of gravity - an iconic US business sold to a then-little known Chinese company.
However this latest news - combined with the partnership with Apple announced in 2014 - represents the culmination of this story. IBM already has some 15,000 Macs deployed through its BYOD programme, but the announcement that 50,000 more will be deployed by the end of 2015 is of a different scale altogether.
This is a significant win for Apple, by any measure, as a major enterprise sale. However the significance of it being IBM carries immense historical and commercial resonance - that Apple has come out on top, and that IBM is deadly serious about the success of the current partnership.
