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Apple's iPad represents a thin, 1.5-pound wrecking ball aimed at the division between netbooks and smart phones. But it may also do collateral damage to another long-crumbling barrier: the separation between work and play. And if that happens, IBM wants be ready to help tear down the wall.

Earlier this week at the Macworld conference in San Francisco, IBM ( IBM - news - people ) announced new business-focused apps for the iPhone operating system, including Lotus Connections tool for social networking inside companies and Lotus Quickr software for sharing documents. Those releases follow Big Blue's launch last month of a Lotus Notes app for the iPhone that includes e-mail and calendar tools, as well as an app known as Lotus Notes Traveler that allows encrypted e-mail.

While those programs are partly aimed at tapping into the small but growing number of iPhones in the enterprise, IBM's manager of Lotus software, Alistair Rennie, says they're also timed to give Big Blue a foothold on the iPad, which will use the same software platform.

"Our customers are looking at the iPad and they're excited about it," says Rennie. "No one quite knows its use patterns yet, but it's our intention to deliver as much of our portfolio as possible on it as fast as possible."

Rennie says IBM will also design applications targeted specifically at the iPad, which it hopes to release "very close to the delivery date" of the device. "The screen real estate and the touch interface should give us the opportunity to do some very interesting things," he says.

Apple's ( AAPL - news - people ) iPad seems squarely targeted at consumers, not BlackBerry-wielding suits. But Rennie says that the tablet, like the iPhone, will likely be used by executives who blend their home and work life and want to use their own personal gadgets to do work securely. "Peoples' lives don't segment neatly between work and home. The iPad gives people what will probably be a home device, but they're still going to want to access a full suite of business software on it," he says. "It'll be a device our customers will own, and they'll expect us to support it."

Apple's products represent one of the strongest forces in the so-called "consumerization of IT," the influx of gadgets into companies without regard for which technology is meant for use inside or outside the enterprise, says IDC analyst Stephen Drake. While IDC estimates that there are only about 4 million iPhones being used in an enterprise setting today, the firm expects that number to reach 9 million by 2013. IDC also predicts that the number of iPhones bought and maintained by companies will grow the most dramatically, quintupling over the next four years to total more then 3 million devices.

As IBM attempts to ride that wave of iPhones into the enterprise, adding software specifically for the iPad is a low-risk bet. "It makes a lot of sense for IBM to get its solutions onto the iPhone and into the mobile space," says Drake. "Given that the iPad uses the same software infrastructure, porting their software to that platform is relatively painless."

Unlike Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ) and Google ( GOOG - news - people ), which compete with IBM in collaboration and messaging software, IBM doesn't have its own mobile operating system to promote. That platform-agnostic approach means that IBM may be freer to develop Apple-focused software than the two other warring tech giants. "Anything Microsoft does will be first focused on Windows mobile, and Google will push apps for Android," says Drake. "For IBM and others that aren't tied to a particular environment, this is a good opportunity for them."

BURLINGAME, Calif. -- Apple's new iPad aims to remake a market touched on by laptops, tablet computers, netbooks and even the iPod--portable devices for the creation and consumption of media, largely text and video. That also hits its increasingly active competitor Google.



The iPad met a mixture of reviews Wednesday, largely inflected with disappointment by people who were expecting much more--a salvation of journalism, the remaking of reading, destruction of the broadcast world, something like that. On its own, however, it may be a worthy device with an acceptable price point (one likely to fall) that should attract a lot of third-party developers. There is also talk of a new kind of electronic bookstore, which should make publishers happy.

Google ( GOOG - news - people ), on the other hand, may not be so amused. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has talked openly of creating a powerful and cheap netbook computer by late 2010. Judging from his words, the Google netbook (or, given the way fashions are trending, perhaps now a tablet) will be priced far below Apple's ( AAPL - news - people ) range of $499 to $829.

Both companies are aiming at the business market, but with very different intentions. Apple, long a seller of hardware, is thinking in terms of something cheaper than a laptop, or better than a netbook. Google sees its device as a means to accessing its main businesses of Internet search and, increasingly, Internet-based office applications like word processing. The Google machine might even be subsidized like a cellphone, thrown on at a deep discount for a subscriber to Google Apps.

The two companies have been coming at each other for a while. Google's Nexus One phone is a rival to Apple's iPhone, and Apple is said to be building big data centers to offer online services a la Google. Earlier this week, Google released software for the iPhone that lets users make cheap long distance calls via the Internet, avoiding some charges by phone companies. Google tried this last year, but Apple did not approve the product. Schmidt resigned from Apple's board soon after. The new Google software can be accessed via the Internet, dodging Apple's control.



Who wins this battle may depend on the market result of corporate style. Both Apple and Google have outstanding recent track records on innovation and disruption, but the companies go about it in very different ways. Older Apple, schooled in selling delightful consumer technology products, has a discipline of process control. Its stuff comes out with the hardware and software created in parallel for maximum performance. With the iPod music player, the online store became part of that process. New versions of products roll out, and sometimes (as with the Mac or the iPhone) outside developers contribute ancillary products, but Apple's taste in the matter rules.

BURLINGAME, Calif.--If you're in the PC business, life is pretty bleak right now. Sales of computers are plummeting. Prices are falling, fast. Outlets selling your wares, such as Circuit City, are folding. Oh, and just about the only thing that's selling right now are low-cost netbooks, lower-cost iPods and canned food.

It could be about to get worse. Much worse. According to a report in the Chinese-language Commercial Times, Taiwanese manufacturer Wintek will supply the touch panels for an Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) device of some kind, possibly a netbook, that will launch by the third quarter.

It's unclear, as always, what the computer and gadget maker is doing. An Apple spokesman declined to comment on "rumors and speculation," and the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is known for working hard to keep upcoming products secret. These guys just aren't big talkers, period, saying little about the health of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who remains out on medical leave through June.

Apple, however, has continued to publicly resist the idea of competing in the market for low-cost netbooks. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook criticized them as "inferior" during a call with investors in January, saying only that Apple will "watch" the space.

Apple can do that, in part, because its powerful, high-end notebooks have remained steady sellers, despite the downturn. Yet it remains a little baffling, considering that Gartner predicts sales of low-cost netbooks will double to 21 million units in 2009 from 11.7 million units last year. It's also possible that Apple is working on a better idea, something that could move its iPod line up market, rather than its notebook computers down market.

Here's what we know: Apple purchased PA Semi, a chip designer that builds powerful, power-sipping processors for the U.S. military, for $278 million in cash last year. Then Apple slugged it out in court with IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) to grab IBM chip designer turned blade-server honcho Mark Papermaster. It then put Papermaster in charge of its iPod and iPhone hardware. And now it looks as if Apple has placed orders for a whole bunch of touch screens.

Oh, and those chips Papermaster designed? Based on the same PowerPC architecture as PA Semi's. You connect the dots.

So when does the bomb drop? We can't be sure. But Jobs is due back by the end of June, and Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is usually slated for June as well. If Jobs strides onto the stage with his coat glossy and his eyes shiny, chances are good he'll be there to rip the lid off an economy-sized box of pain for the rest of the PC business. He could unveil a powerful, media-friendly tablet based on the iPod Touch, or some other form of multi-core, touch-screen monster.

The Finnish phone maker's new N97 device could compete with low-cost laptops.