Don’t bank on BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion owning the enterprise. RIM devices are being hurled into the trash at financial institutions as more and more bankers turn to the iPhone.
Deutsche Bank is the highest-profile bank to permit job-related iPhones, destroying RIM’s once-comfortable lock on enterprise mobility. Although its a pilot program, there’s no guessing the final result.
“One of my co-workers doesn’t even use his BlackBerry anymore,” an employee tells Business Insider. “He just leaves it plugged in and forwards the calls to his iPhone.” Like Union Bank before it, Deutsche Bank uses Good, an app that encrypts and decrypts employee emails. Interestingly, the software supports only the iPhone and Android.
Along with providing a Mail.app appearance, the software offers internal links, such as a company’s intranet.
While Deutsche Bank is the first high-profile Wall Street bank to adopt the security software, companies tend to have a herd mentality. This pilot program could push heavyweights, such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman and Bank of America to follow suite.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
20 responses to “Banks Ditching Blackberries For iPhones”
Nice picture of downtown Vancouver
Wall Street is still betting on Apple to fall to Android within the next few quarters, so the enterprise dropping the BlackBerry is somewhat inconsequential. It’s Google’s Android OS that’s causing RIM’s downfall, not Apple’s iOS. Enterprise businesses still feel that iPhones are too expensive and the system is too closed.
My wife dreamt about a Blackberry for years until finally her employer gave her one this winter for work-related use. Got disillusioned in about one week. The most unstable POS software she’s ever have to put up with. Aside from phone calls and emails, it’s useless. UI is horrible, apps are sure to crash, browser is clumsy Somebody should start a RIM death watch because if after years of being in business they still can’t get their product to work right, they’re not going to be of this earth for long.
Um, highly doubt that. Android is too much of a hodge podge of versions to make inroads into big enterprise at the present. The big corporations I work with all use BES with some leeway in using iPhones. No one uses Android on the corp. servers.
Everything about a blackberry is anti-sexy. Whenever I see somebody with a blackberry I think about how much of an asshole this must be. A cell phone that is tied almost exclusively to your employer? BARF.
To hop on DB’s team, also google has invested a ton of apps to Apple’s iPhone and the company themselves have already created apps to work with the iPhone. Android might have had a hold in the market if they were more uniform and let’s be honest-is there a phone out there that a bank like Deutsche would even think is expensive? Really? They are probably buying up iPhones in truck loads as we speak.
“Although its a pilot”
it’s.
Usually people put in extra apostrophes. This time, there is one missing.
I’m a security architect at a major financial institution. You could not be more wrong. Android is highly insecure not just from malware but from Google themselves. For this reason Android and many other google products are not allowed for internal use or even use by our vendors. They likely never will be because its Googles business model to monitor user activity.
iPhones are hardly considered expensive and there is nothing “closed” about ios that corporations care about.
You are so far off that I can easily assume you are just making things up.
The software only supports Android and iPhone because BlackBerry already encrypts emails.
Just what does being “too closed” really mean? No Flash? That apps must be pre-approved? It only runs on one device? I can understand some concern, but on the flip side, shouldn’t one be concern too that Flash means horrid battery life? That a free-for-all app store means malware which Google had to switch on the nuke switch not too long ago? That multiple device choice means fragmentation and obviously a nightmare to administer for enterprise businesses?
I think sometimes, people are just parroting soundbites without really considering the reasons. True. Competition is good and I hope Android and RIM remains nipping at Apple’s butt to keep them innovating. But this whole mantra about “closed” and “expensive” is just so tired. Try a new argument and make it more convincing.