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UK-based, Asia-operating Standard Chartered Bank is allowing its 75,000 employees to replace their BlackBerry with iPhones if they prefer. Although RIM has been riding high on consumer sales lately, they still have a massive installed base of enterprise customers. Standard Chartered is far from the biggest bank in the UK, but it’s still a significant BlackBerry rollout that could have its numbers reduced as a result of the iPhone option. With the next iPhone OS, Apple is becoming more enterprise-friendly, offering management and security policies that, though perhaps not as robust as the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, may meet the required standards for certain companies. Standard Chartered could be a useful case study that shows yes, iPhone can actually work for big-boy businesses.
Many people double up on mobiles: BlackBerry for business, and iPhone for pleasure. The decision for a company to allow iPhones is based at least partly on that inconvenience, although some might prefer to keep the two separate. Where do you guys stand? Any BlackBerry users out there who would ditch their ball and chain for an iPhone the first chance they got?
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
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mikeyrocks
