"All it will take is one or two high-profile companies to migrate to Apple to open the floodgates for other IT managers to realize that they, too, should consider moving to a new platform, " Pile says.

FORBES: Apple's New Core

But the main reason HP paid a 64% premium for its shares seems to be that it believes that Autonomy's technology could be turned into a platform to help companies make sense of their ever-growing pile of data.

ECONOMIST: HP��s grand vision

In fact, Pile says, Apple may soon make new inroads into the corporate IT market with its OS X platform.

FORBES: Apple's New Core