First Apple took RIM’s spot as the No. 4 mobile phone maker. Now the Cupertino, Calif. company is poaching sales executives from the BlackBerry maker. At least five RIM employees have been hired away by Apple over the past eighteen months, reports say.
Apple’s goal of increased business sales got a shot in the arm after RIM’s Head of Strategic Sales, Geoff Perfect, joined Apple in April 2009. Perfect now heads the iPhone’s Enterprise Sales unit, according to the Wall Street Journal. Other defections from RIM include it’s Senior Global Sales Manager, Global Strategic Account Manager and Global Account Manager. They now sell iOS devices to the corporate market.
RIM, which once had the corporate market firmly in the grip of the BlackBerry, now sees that hold slipping away to Apple. Indeed, RIM CEO Jim Balsille recently claimed talk of Apple leading the Canadian company was the result of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ “Distorted Reality.” The charge followed Jobs’ claim that the iPhone is outselling RIM (14.1 million versus 12.2 million during the most recent three-month period).
“I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future. It will be a challenge for them to create a mobile software platform and convince developers to support a third platform,” Jobs said.
