Apple Partners With Cisco Explores New Relationship with Hollywood

Apple is looking for some big partners to beef up its massive brand.

The Cupertino-based company is courting major Hollywood producers to create original content to compete with Netflix, according to a report from Variety on Monday. While the company is not commenting on those meetings, Apple did confirm Monday that it is teaming up with Cisco to bring more iPhones and iPads to business users.

So what will these new partnerships mean for the company? Here are some answers.

How serious is Apple about original content?

Conversations are in preliminary stages, the report said, but Apple’s ultimate intent is to create development and production divisions for long-form streaming content to compete with Netflix. It remains unknown if the focus will be television series, films, or a little of each.

The Apple content unit on the prowl in Tinseltown reports to Eddy Cue and may headhunt Hollywood-based executives in the upcoming weeks.

Will the content business be good for Apple?

Content production is not a core business for Apple, but its major tech rivals, including Amazon, have already made a major play for the market. Apple has plenty of cash on hand to enter into the fray in a move that would bolster its exclusive offerings on iTunes.

Like streaming music, Apple would be late to the party, but the company could also build a solid business model based on its competitors’ successes and failures. Winners include Netflix, which has built a solid reputation as a content producer that spends top dollar and gets nominated for Emmys. Losers include Microsoft’s Xbox, which built an entire studio that flopped.

Would Apple content move away from the current a la carte model to a monthly subscription? Or would it go ad-supported in light of its new Apple TV offering?

What’s the deal with Apple and Cisco?

Corporate technology spending represents a $2 trillion annual market, according to the Wall Street Journal. The partnership with Cisco will broaden Apple’s appeal to businesses and help its mobile devices communicate more effectively on corporate networks where Cisco is used. The company plans to focus on Cisco’s collaboration products, including its video- and Web-conferencing services.