> Finding ways to lock those enterprise clients, with their huge budgets, into the Apple ecosystem for 10+ years is nicer still.
No, it's not.
And if there's anyone at Apple thinking that (I'd bet there isn't), they'd be guilty of idiotic medium-term thinking. Locking a customer into Apple for 10+ years means tying Apple to that customer for just as long. Gather up enough of them and they'll be deadweight holding Apple back whenever they most need to change.
These are exactly the chains that prevent Microsoft from doing anything other than continuing to steer the "good ship Windows" right into that iceberg. If Apple really is voluntarily putting them on... then they really have lost their way.
I don't know... by partnering with IBM, they deflect a little of the weight from those customers to big blue. Apple is still a consumer focused company. Apple tried (and failed) to move Mac OS and Macs into the enterprise. I doubt they'll let iOS become beholden to it.
One example of this is how long the iPad 2 was available. That was the first form factor that was adopted by enterprise for particular vertical applications (kiosks, custom apps, etc). Even though Apple kept coming out with new models, they still kept selling the old version, and made the new iOS versions as compatible with the iPad 2 as much as possible. But it didn't limit what they did with their new models. I see this going in much the same way, but with IBM acting as an intermediary between enterprise customers and the consumer-focused Apple.
IBM gets lock-in through support contracts. Apple gets lock-in through their proprietary ecosystem. Those are two very different things. There is no need for Apple to be beholden to any particular client.
No, it's not.
And if there's anyone at Apple thinking that (I'd bet there isn't), they'd be guilty of idiotic medium-term thinking. Locking a customer into Apple for 10+ years means tying Apple to that customer for just as long. Gather up enough of them and they'll be deadweight holding Apple back whenever they most need to change.
These are exactly the chains that prevent Microsoft from doing anything other than continuing to steer the "good ship Windows" right into that iceberg. If Apple really is voluntarily putting them on... then they really have lost their way.