Apple and IBM have announced a sweeping new partnership designed to bring the best of both companies together and, in doing so, make mobile in enterprise better. The agreement, which includes industry-specific solutions, dedicated apps for iPhone and iPad, cloud services optimized for iOS, AppleCare support for enterprise, and packaged services from IBM, aims to meld IBM's big data and analytics with Apple's device and experience savvy.

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, had this to say:

iPhone and iPad are the best mobile devices in the world and have transformed the way people work with over 98 percent of the Fortune 500 and over 92 percent of the Global 500 using iOS devices in their business today. For the first time ever we're putting IBM's renowned big data analytics at iOS users' fingertips, which opens up a large market opportunity for Apple. This is a radical step for enterprise and something that only Apple and IBM can deliver.

And IBM Chairman, President and CEO, Ginni Rometty:

Mobility—combined with the phenomena of data and cloud—is transforming business and our industry in historic ways, allowing people to re-imagine work, industries and professions. This alliance with Apple will build on our momentum in bringing these innovations to our clients globally, and leverages IBM's leadership in analytics, cloud, software and services. We are delighted to be teaming with Apple, whose innovations have transformed our lives in ways we take for granted, but can't imagine living without. Our alliance will bring the same kind of transformation to the way people work, industries operate and companies perform.

Cook and Rometty gave a number of interviews in support of the announcement. Re/code:

Apple has never made much noise about its enterprise sales and has famously shied away from having a dedicated enterprise sales force. In teaming up with IBM, Cook said, Apple is getting the best of both worlds. Were Apple to fully embrace its potential opportunity in the enterprise it might have to build a new division to the company. In teaming up with IBM it won't have to go that far. "We're good at building a simple experience and in building devices," Cook said. "The kind of deep industry expertise you would need to really transform the enterprise isn't in our DNA. But it is in IBM's."

Both Cook and Rometty appeared together on CNBC:

Tim Cook's internal email to Apple employees included, according to 9to5Mac:

IBM is known for helping customers leverage big data and analytics to make their businesses run better. With over 100,000 consultants and sales professionals, they also have massive scale and global reach. IBM's sales and consulting teams will also be selling iPad, iPhone and AppleCare for Enterprise as part of the partnership. This partnership brings together the best of both companies. It's great news for Apple, IBM and for enterprise customers worldwide and I'm really excited to see it take off.

So why Apple and IBM? The focus really seems to be on their complementary rather then competing businesses, their gold standards when it comes to the respective products and services, their global scales, and their joint desire to make enterprise customer's lives better.

IBM gets the best mobile devices and app development ecosystem in the world to work with, Apple gets IBM's deep reach into enterprise to go from breadth to depth. Right now 98% of the top companies in the world have deployed iOS. With Apple and IBM partnering, the goal seems to be getting those enterprises to use even more iOS. A lot more. All serviced and supported by IBM.

Update: The NYT has printed their interview with Cook, which includes pretty much exactly what was summed up above:

Even without a direct sales force and service, Apple's iPhones and iPads are used by over 92 percent of the Fortune Global 500 companies, Mr. Cook said. But there is still a vast untapped market for Apple, he said, by selling more Apple products into large companies and reaching the wider corporate market. "The penetration is low and the ceiling is so far above us, it's unbelievable," Mr. Cook said.

Complete press release below, let me know what you think!