Frenemies: A Brief History of Apple and IBM Partnerships

Steve Jobs battled a number of tech rivals, but in the early 80s, his ire was largely directed at IBM. The professional squabble dates back to at least 1981 with Apple's "Welcome, IBM. Seriously" ad, and seemingly ended just yesterday with a joint agreement to bring IBM's enterprise software to iOS devices later this year. But while the companies have indeed clashed over the last 30 years, yesterday's pairing was not the first time these two behemoths have teamed up.

Take AIM
Just 10 years after the first salvo was fired between Apple and IBM, the two joined with Motorola in 1991 to develop a standard for the PowerPC architecture that could go against the Microsoft-Intel Wintel alliance. The Apple-Intel-Motorola (AIM) team took IBM's Power instruction set architecture and turned it into a consumer-friendly version that was manufactured by IBM and Motorola and used in Apple's Macintosh line from 1994 to 2006, when Apple - to which Jobs returned in 1997 - transitioned to Intel-based machines.

"It's been ten years since our transition to the PowerPC, and we think Intel's technology will help us create the best personal computers for the next ten years," Jobs said in announcing the move.

From OS to Oh No
In the late 80s, Apple was working on an object-oriented operating system, codenamed Pink. But it was having trouble pulling it all together. In the wake of the AIM alliance, Apple turned to IBM for assistance, and Pink was reborn as a joint project known as Taligent with IBM's Joe Guglielmi at the helm.

The Taligent development team worked away for two years, eventually switching from an object-oriented OS to an object-oriented programming environment that would work on any modern OS. But despite support from Hewlett-Packard, Taligent all but fizzled by the mid-90s. Guglielmi left the company for Motorola in 1995, and after his successor, Dick Guarino, died of a heart attack later that year, Taligent became just another IBM subsidiary. It was officially dissolved in 1998.

Bullet and a Target
After being spurned by Microsoft on an object linking and embedding project, Apple approached IBM about working on it together in 1992. It resulted in the OpenDoc word-processing program and browser but didn't have what it took to go against Java. When he returned to Apple, Jobs "put a bullet through [OpenDoc's] head," as he said.

The Enemy of My Enemy
In the last 20 years, Apple and IBM have taken separate paths. IBM jettisoned its PC business and focused firmly on the enterprise, making headlines along the way for its artificial intelligence work on Watson. Apple, meanwhile, became a consumer darling, with customers lining up to nab the company's latest phones and tablets. By coming back together, though, Apple delves further into the enterprise with a partner that is well-known in that space, while IBM gets to offer up products with a certain "cool" factor and tap into the Apple mystique.

For more, check out Apple and IBM Bury the Hammer and IBM and Apple Mean Business.