The global alliance between IBM and Apple for iPhone and iPad devices targeted at enterprises is unlikely to shake up the Indian devices market in the near term.
Under this partnership, IBM will bring its new class of business apps involving big data and analytics capabilities to Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices, which will be targeted at various segments of the enterprise category.
However, this alliance is expected to have limited impact in a growing market like India, especially in the smartphone segment given Apple’s limited market share.
Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst, Gartner told FE, ?Frankly, I do not see a huge impact in an emerging market like India which is still price sensitive unlike the mature economies.?
He felt that if a similar announcement were to be made by Samsung then the situation would have been different given their dominant market share. ?We are not an Apple country,? he added.
The alliance with IBM gives Apple a strong push into the enterprise segment. Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO, Greyhound Research, terms this partnership as “interesting”.
He said this alliance would play a key role in shaping the bring your own device (BYOD) concept in Indian enterprise market, while adding that IBM will also bring in its expertise in connecting different kinds of technology platforms. Analysts felt Apple would certainly gain from IBM’s deep strength in the enterprise segment, whose financing arm could provide the much needed leverage in selling these devices.
Apple’s market share in India is below 10% in the smartphone segment, which is dominated by Samsung and followed by other homegrown players like Micromax, Karbonn etc. Similarly in the tablet segment also, Samsung is the market leader followed by Apple’s iPad.
This alliance will also likely to test Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Blackberry.
The Android operating system is the dominating software both in smartphone and tablet segments and it remains to be seems how this alliance will tackle this. Tripathi felt that these players may adopt a wait-and-watch policy before they take any decisions.
?We can expect a different kind of a war and enterprises are most likely to be given a lot more discount on Apple products,? Greyhound’s Gogia said.
