BlackBerry under assault in corporate America
A pair of stories emerged today that demonstrate how Research in Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry smartphones, is under attack from all sides. For some time, RIM's position as one that satisfied corporate clients with its smartphones was unassailable.
But now with iPhone and Google's Android eating up market share, and Microsoft's Phone 7 coming around the corner, RIM's bread and butter is being threatened, some think. The latest comScore market report shows RIM still holds the market lead over iPhone and Android, but it's lead is slipping.
The news today: First, sources tell Bloomberg that Bank of America and Citigroup -- two of the biggest U.S. banks -- are testing iPhones for corporate use as an alternative to BlackBerrys.
Second, Dell, which is in the smartphone business itself, told the Wall Street Journal that it plans to ditch RIM's BlackBerrys for its 25,000 employees, and switch them over to their phones, which would run Microsoft and Android software.
Corporate I.T. departments are under pressure from employees to support their personal devices, which are often iPhones and Android devices -- so RIM's competitors are slowly creeping into the workplace. Will there be a tipping point soon?
[Thanks to Cult of Mac for image]
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Comments
We've been evaluating various smartphones at work for use in addition to (as an alternative to) Blackberries.
Nobody (including Apple) matches the enterprise capabilities (esp w/regard to security and management) that Blackberry has. However, that gap is narrowing everyday.
Functionally, the gap isn't as wide as most people think either, it's just the iPhone and Android put a slick, easier-to-use UI on top of those common functions. They made smartphones fun and easy to use (i.e. they consumerized them).
The Torch (which I have been playing with at work) is a viable alternative to both iPhone and Android: it's everything the Storm should have been and wasn't. It's also regrettable that it's only available on AT&T.
As mentioned in the article, what's really changing is number of users who want to be able to use their personal phone for corporate use. This not only lowers costs for the organization, but lowers support costs and labor as well. People who use a device they like (vs. having one forced upon them) tend to have a better experience and need less support.
As was mentioned in a seminar I recently attended: corporate data is going to show up on personal devices, the question is if/how it will be managed. Employees can forward all their email to gmail for example (no management, little security), or it can be managed via apps such as Lotus Notes Traveler, and Good Mobile Messaging, which keep corporate data segregated and secure from personal data and provide the enterprise features that security officers and management like.
Posted by: Bill | November 5, 2010 11:13 AM