UBS: IBM/Apple To Go Horizontal As Well As Vertical In Enterprise Applications - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), IBM (NYSE:IBM)

Steven Milunovich of UBS on Monday commented in a note that

Apple Inc.

AAPL

has historically been poor in marketing to enterprise customers, a characteristic the company hopes to reverse with its alliance to bring

IBM IBM analytics to Apple products. Apple CEO Tim Cook previously commented on the relationship calling it "profound" and "really going to change the way people work." "Our initial reaction has been skepticism while admitting that IBM's sales and maintenance capabilities are a boon," Milunovich wrote. "But perhaps there is upside potential given the importance of mobile to IBM and enterprise to Apple." Milunovich notes that according to checks, Apple is dictating the terms of customer engagement and that IBM sales people are only to have Macs with them running keynote presentations developed by Apple. The analyst adds that the partnership "probably has more teeth than most" given the one-time competitors are now highly complementary today and have opposite strength. Milunovich also states that over a dozen enterprises have signed on as foundation customers, with IBM talking to an additional 130 potential clients regarding MobileFirst for iOS. The first 10 apps were for verticals (such as banking), retail (such as Sales Assist) and Airlines with over 100 industry apps coming. The analyst also adds that there is talks that IBM will be adding horizontal apps over time such as supply chain capabilities as it has been backing into applications through its SaaS acquisitions and analytics expertise. Shares of Apple are Buy rated with a $130 price target.

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