Apple CEO Tim Cook with IBM CEO Ginni Rometty
After inking a deal with Apple to push iOS devices and enterprise apps to its customers, IBM today started offering all employees Macs for the first time. We’ve seen the official IBM notice, and several IBM employees on Twitter are praising the decision after years of PC hell:
Benefits of #IBM #Apple partnership. Employees can now choose between MAC or PC. #betterwaytowork
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John Collins (@johncollins2014) May 28, 2015
In a memo to employees, IBM notes that starting today all employees (not just some select developers like in the past) can pick from a MacBook Pro, Macbook Air, or a PC when setting up a new or refreshed workstation. The machines will include new software for security, Wi-Fi, and VPN out of the box so employees just have to connect to the internet to get started, according to the memo. IBM notes that it currently has around 15,000 Macs deployed through its BYOD program, but plans to deploy around 50,000 Macbooks by the end of the year. That, according to the memo, would make IBM the biggest “Mac shop” around, and the company said it’s sharing what it learns through the new deployment with Apple as Apple assists through its device enrollment program.
Apple first announced the partnership with IBM last summer that would see the companies develop MobileFirst for iOS apps for enterprise customers in addition to pushing iOS devices and enterprise AppleCare support. It’s probably not a good look to be selling Apple services from a ThinkPad, but the change is a company wide initiative and not just for IBM employees pushing MobileFirst for iOS. Employees will be able to switch to company-issued Macs whenever replacing an older machine as normal.
Apple first started rolling out the apps in December with solutions for banking, retail, insurance, financial services, telecommunications, government and airlines. It’s since launched several more MobileFirst solutions bringing the total up to 22 and just this month started bringing Apple Watch support to several of the apps.
Finally #MAC@IBM more choice for IBMers
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Gürsel Yigit (@Godgy77) May 27, 2015
#IBM employees officially can choose their laptop: WinTel, Linux or Mac #Choices
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Stephan H. Wissel (@notessensei) May 28, 2015
@9to5mac IBM send email to employee to ask them change to Mac from Thinkpad.
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(@smoothdvd) May 28, 2015
Filed under: AAPL Company, Mac Tagged: IBM, Mac 
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