iPhones and iPads moved an important step towards becoming staples of modern working life on Tuesday as Apple sealed a groundbreaking alliance with IBM to turn its gadgets into fully business-friendly devices.
iPhone和iPad周二向着成为现代职场必备用品的目标迈出了重要一步，苹果(Apple)与IBM达成一项具有开创性的合作协议，将把苹果设备变成完全商业友好的设备。
The partnership, intended to increase the security and functionality of Apple’s mobile devices for corporate users, is a mark of how deeply “consumerisation” is reshaping corporate technology markets.
这一合作针对企业用户，旨在加强企业用户使用的移动设备的安全和功用。这也表明，“消费者导向”正大大改变企业科技市场。
Apple and IBM were once bitter foes in the personal computing market, but have been forced to co-operate as workers bring gadgets from their personal lives to the office.
苹果和IBM曾经是个人电脑市场上的一对劲敌，但随着员工将电子设备从个人生活带到办公室，双方被迫展开合作。
The deal will see IBM provide cloud services, including device management and security, for Apple’s handsets and tablets, which it will sell to large business and government customers loaded with apps specialised for particular industries.
根据这笔交易，IBM将为苹果手机和平板电脑提供云服务（包括设备管理和安全），苹果向大企业和政府客户销售的也将是带有行业定制应用软件的设备。
Frank Gillett, analyst at Forrester Research, hailed the deal as a “landmark agreement”.
Forrester Research分析师弗兰克•吉勒特(Frank Gillett)称赞这笔交易是一项“里程碑式协议”。
The biggest loser from the partnership is likely to be Microsoft, which will suffer a dent to its ambitions of winning business users over to its Windows 8 software on touchscreen devices, said Richard Doherty, an analyst at Envisioneering.
Envisioneering分析师理查德•多尔蒂(Richard Doherty)表示，苹果与IBM合作的最大输家可能是微软(Microsoft)，微软正试图通过用于触屏设备的Windows 8软件赢得企业用户。
Although Apple says 98 per cent of Fortune 500 companies use its devices, the partnership is an acknowledgment that the consumer-focused company lacks the expertise and salesforce required to tackle large corporate customers. It also comes amid continuing criticism of Apple’s cloud services and will provide a fillip to the iPhone, where revenue growth has slowed in recent quarters.
尽管苹果表示，《财富》(Fortune)500强公司中有98%都在使用苹果设备，但双方的合作表明，在与大公司客户打交道方面，这家以消费者为中心的公司仍缺乏专业技能和销售团队。而此时外界对苹果云服务的批评还在继续，双方的合作将会刺激iPhone的销售，最近几个季度iPhone的收入增长一直缓慢。