Will Apple bring developers to IBM's Watson ecosystem?
One of IBM's primary motives for cutting a large enterprise deal with Apple may revolve around building a mobile and cloud developer ecosystem for cognitive computing and Watson.
Tech Pro Research
Last week, IBM and Apple announced a broad enterprise pact where Big Blue would develop industry specific apps built on iOS. In addition, there were service, support and mobile device management parts of the deal. Apple gets some enterprise throughput with IBM that it couldn't achieve on its own. IBM gets a key partner in Apple and some help for its mobile efforts.
But the real win for IBM may be getting access to Apple's large developer base. Part of the IBM-Apple partnership revolves around putting "big data analytics at iOS users’ fingertips," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.
IBM's big analytics bet is its $1 billion investment to create a Watson business unit. This division would spearhead a charge into cognitive computing, or systems that learn and adapt. Healthcare is one obvious vertical for Watson, but IBM has many more industries targeted.
The problem: It's hard to build a developer base. IBM is investing in startups who are building apps for Watson, but wooing developers is tricky---especially when much mobile development time is spent on iOS and Android with Windows Phone playing a No. 3 role. Could IBM really woo mobile and cloud developers and get them to work on the Watson platform quickly?
IBM, Apple forge enterprise app pact: Watson, meet iPad
In IBM and Apple's wake, what will team Android do?
IBM courts mobile developers for Watson platform
IBM's Watson unit invests in Fluid, eyes personal shopping applications
Probably not.
Enter Apple. Developers for iOS make more money than Android and get better running apps overall. As a result, iOS gets the apps first with Android versions coming later. Enterprise giants go iOS first as do consumer developers.
IBM needs those developers if it's going to really make Watson a commercial powerhouse. Through its Apple partnership, IBM will certainly get a look from developers. It's unclear what IBM analytics tools will be built into iOS, but it's possible that developers may give Big Blue the Watson ecosystem lift it wants.
ZDNet's Monday Morning Opener is our opening salvo for the week in tech. As a global site, this editorial publishes on Monday at 8am AEST in Sydney, Australia, which is 6pm Eastern Time on Sunday in the US. It is written by a member of ZDNet's global editorial board, which is comprised of our lead editors across Asia, Australia, Europe, and the US.
Previously on Monday Morning Opener
- The future of computing is a battle for your personal information
- Hybrid and private vs. public cloud strategies: Assessing the duel
- Microsoft Surface Pro 3: New hardware but the same old questions remain
- Waiting for Google I/O
- Amazon's smartphone: One reason why it could be a contender (and it's not the 3D)
- Apple's next big move: Capture three new ecosystems
- Data caps are the least of America's internet problems
- Core Infrastructure Initiative just first step in open source funding
- Microservers and the hurry-up-and-wait conundrum
- Heartboned: Why Google needs to reclaim Android updates
- Mapping out the next half a century of computing