Bob O’Donnell, Tech.pinions:

Even though it wasn’t the first time that Apple and IBM have announced partnerships in the enterprise space, as a long-time tech industry observer, there’s still part of me that finds it surprising to see an Apple executive speak at an IBM event.

Such was the case at last week’s IBM Think conference in Las Vegas, where the two announced that IBM’s Watson Services was going to be offered as an extension to Apple’s CoreML machine learning software. Essentially, for companies who are creating custom mobile applications for iPhones (and iPads), the new development means that enterprises can get access to IBM’s Watson AI tools in their iOS business applications.

And:

At a basic level, you could argue that there may be future battles between Siri and Watson. Given all the difficulties Apple has had with Siri, versus the generally much more positive reaction to Watson, that could prove to be a significant challenge for Apple.

Lots more to process in the article, definitely an interesting read, but at the heart of this IBM/Apple collaboration is the collision course between Watson and Siri.

Will the partnership cede the business space to Watson’s brand? Will Siri have a role there? Will they share the space, with Siri handling the admin work and Watson the analysis?

All interesting (to me at least) questions. And it points to a future problem, as the world gets filled, more and more, with devices that interact with the likes of Siri, Alexa, GooglePerson, Cortana, and yes, even Watson. I’d like to see a standard evolve for this sort of interaction, something that allows me to ask Siri to interact with a hotel’s services, even if they are provided by IBM or Amazon. Food for thought.