HSBC moving to iPhone, dissolving BlackBerry allegiance?
ZDNet Australia certainly seems to think so. According to the site, Global Bank HSBC is considering ridding themselves of their reliance on the BlackBerry, opting instead to transition their workers to iPhones. If this goes through, it could result in a bulk order of up to 200,000 iPhone units which would most likely rank as the highest mass purchases of the handset to date. The fact that a company like HSBC is even considering the iPhone is testament to robust new Enterprise features in the new 2.0 firmware. The move would be a massive boon to Apple, both in terms of sheer sales as well as public perception, and could conceivably convince other firms to consider a similar move. While we certainly won’t see the BlackBerry disappear any time soon, RIM might want to consider pushing out the Bold before the end of the decade, as product delays like this can’t do much to bolster confidence in the firm’s desire and ability to keep up with the times.
Thanks, Grouch, and everyone that sent this in!
Tags: Apple, BlackBerry, hsbc, iPhone, RIM
I will eat my hat if this happens. The iPhone is an incredible consumer device (I have a 3G as my personal phone), but it is not even close to being up to par with BB in the enterprise for most large companies, let alone banks. I’m sure they’re doing their cost/benefit analysis on it like most other companies are but I would be very, very surprised if a transition on that scale happened anytime soon.
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Blackberry needs to be taken out back and shot
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Sounds like an HSBC I.T. Dept nitemare.
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Wow. I work for a bank. Can’t even imagine them coming out with a policy allowing iPhones, let alone swapping out BB’s for them. This can’t be true.
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well, i don’t get it. robust IT controls with blackberry and infrastructure already intact (and presumably) paid for except licenses for additional users.. this doesn’t make sense… especially with a new touch screen blackberry apparently on the way
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I stumbled upon this from another site, I am by no means some BB fanboi, I don’t even own one. But this has to be the biggest joke in business communications.
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This can’t be a real post. No deliberate strike-through of any wise-ass comments, . . .nah, it’s a fake story for sure!
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Ive heard rumors at work that JPMorgan Chase is going to do the same thing. They are testing it now and could go to the iPhone next year.
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I switched from the blackberry to iphone and I know other companies doing the same. I have to say though, I really miss the copy and past function of my blackberry. For work, you often want to copy an e-mail but erase the header information that contains the originator’s information. Can’t do that on an iphone.
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If you own Global Bank HSBC stock, now is the time to sell.
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A real ground breaker is when the staff from The Office on nbc all get iphones and get rid of their blackberries lol
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Well, like BG said, hopefully this will prompt RIM and/or AT&T to HURRY UP ALREADY, with the launch of the Bold!! What’s the friggin’ hold up?
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My bad , I mean Joshua Karp. Sorry.
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There is no way in the world this will ever happen. And what is this crap about 200k iPhones. HSBC doesn’t have 200k BB users, wtf? I work for a major bank and we already did our CBA on the iPhone, needless to say, not a chance of the iPhone in our company anytime soon.
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No problem Joshua. I’m shocked that any bank would consider such a bold move, let alone one a bank as large as HSBC. If they go through with it and it fails, then other companies will think twice, but if they are successful and it is a smooth transition, then other companies will definitely consider such a move. I’m sure Apple will do their best to make sure they get off the ground running as smooth as possible. As long as they don’t let the original Mobile-Me team manage this, things should go ok.
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The first commenter mentioned cost/benefit analysis. I wonder if going with the iPhone is a cheaper option for enterprises since they don’t have to pay for RIM’s expensive BES per-user licensing fees + the huge cost of RIM’s enterprise support.
Might see other companies making the switch purely because RIM has priced themselves out of the market at the enterprise level.
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@Neil
Can you please repost your comment. It came through garbled. It appears as though said “RIM has priced themselves out of the market at the enterprise level”. I know it’s crazy, I know you wouldn’t say that, so please tell us what you were really trying to say. Thanks.
And if you really did mean to say that, please remove yourself from the Internet. You know not what you speak. At the very least, please refrain from commenting about stuff you have no idea about. You are obviously not a BES administrator or IT manager, and if you are, you’re an idiot for not knowing better. Yes, RIM is expensive, but they are the best at what they do. The iPhone is super cool, but that’s it. It can not hold a candle to RIM in an enterprise environment. ESPECIALLY with large financial institutions. So again, you’re a clown.
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So…their employees don’t ever copy and paste?
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HSBC wouldn’t be using MobileMe, so Apple having initially dropped the ball on that is a bit of a red herring vis-a-vis this possible transition.
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When their iPhones get hacked because of the lack of iPhone security and your bank info and credit cards are distributed around the world I will laugh.
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Short of push e-mail what are the robust enterprise features?
- no software footprint on the desktop? Oh wait there’s iTunes that gigantic bloatware
- Ability to control what apps go on the phone? Oh wait nope no admin control
- Ability to push software to the phone over the air? Nope not yet
I’m not saying that the iPhone won’t eventually have them, but to say Robust Enterprise features is almost hyperbole. It has a superior web browser and the app store which from an enterprise perspective may be a nightmare.
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Regardless of whether HSBC does switch it means that Rimm now will have to work to keep their clients. HSBC can now say we may move to Rimm unless you reduce fees, licensing, handset costs etc. In any event Rimm’s margins are about to get squeezed as they are in for a major fight for business against Apple which is a much larger and more capitalized competitor. Plus look how large Apple is. Do you think they run their business on macs or use windows server. You think they have a blackberry server. Not a chance.
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I have a feeling that HSBC will be immediately investing in AAPL stock right before the switch. There got to be much more than just a device switch. Shouldn’t the cost of the DATA PLANS be considered by HSBC’s CFO. WTH are they thinking?? Where’s the benefit in the switch?
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@ Jeff Rago
You sound like a BlackBerry fanboy moron. You didn’t even attempt to counter my point that perhaps HSBC would go with the iPhone because it would end up cheaper for them.
In fact, all you said was “Yes, RIM is expensive, but they are the best at what they do”
You know, maybe HSBC is willing to settle for second-best at the enterprise level if it means they don’t have to pay the large per-user BES licensing fees in addition to RIM’s expensive tiered support.
Stop playing the idiot “iPhone is a toy” line and put up some facts, or shut the hell up.
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Well th iphone is a secury hole thats already been exploited. also you can’t run multiple processes in th background this story seems mor lik ZDnet speculation. Rim isn’t without it’s weakness either BBproxy by the techlow group allows you to raid a network if the BES server is connected to the network..
and besides personal use i don’t see any reason whay HSBC employees would use the device
there is no encryption and therirs no Banking aplets in the apps store.
Rim for the time being has the mobile infastructure B 0f A has a mobile site for BB’s ect Even E_trade has an applet for BB dose the iphone NOPE> and tha fact that the original required you to input you SSN with to run the credit check to activate dosn’t sound promissing.
Rim has to do 2 things here
3 sop playing the fracking DELAY game like sony did with the PS3
put out a less cumbersome API SDK and simulator an really embrace this developers conference get the developer comunity on your side.
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