HSBC Denies Rumors of Company-wide iPhone Switch
Rumors have been flying around for the past week with regards to a huge move over at HSBC. The global bank was supposedly toying with the idea of ditching its BlackBerrys and deploying roughly 200,000 shiny new iPhone 3Gs to employees around the world. Version 2.x of the iPhone software has some great new features aimed at enterprise users so why not, right? We’re afraid not, El Senior Jobso. As it turns out, this rumor is just that - a rumor. HSBC has made an official public statement and clarified that it is most certainly not considering the switch. The buzz all started last week when HSBC Australia and New Zealand CIO Brenton Hush was quoted by ZDNET Australia as saying HSBC was considering the switch. According to a UK spokesperson for HSBC, no dice:
I don’t know if he was miss quoted or if it was made up, but I can put the rumours to bed now and state there is no truth in it at all. It’s simply not going to happen.
Apparently HSBC likes physical buttons and BlackBerry Messenger a bit too much to spend an enormous amount of cash on iPhone 3Gs. Had the rumors been true, this would have been Apple’s largest corporate iPhone score by leaps and bounds.
[Thanks, shlammed]
Tags: Apple, BlackBerry, hsbc, iphone 3g, RIM
Whew!!! Balance has been restored to the universe. A physical qwerty keyboard will always be better than a virtual one when it comes to businesses. Maybe HSBC will switch to the HTC Dream and get the best of both worlds and a little Android lovin come Q4.
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It’s not just the physical keyboard that makes a difference, but after switching from a Blackberry 8320 to a iPhone 3G, I can say that the iPhone has a long way to go before it is ever going to be as corporate friendly and efficient as a Blackberry. There are so many small things besides a physical keyboard and push email/calendar/contacts (which RIM still does 10x better than the iPhone) that make me miss the Blackberry.
The iPhone is a nice device for regular consumers and very small enterprise deployments, but for any medium size or larger business, issuing iPhones instead of Blackberries is akin to issuing Sony PSPs to consumers instead of laptops.
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” A physical qwerty keyboard will always be better than a virtual one when it comes to businesses.”
“Will always be better??” That’s a pretty bold and unqualified statement there kiddo, and you weren’t even just talking in the narrower realm of email. No you wrote “when it comes to business,” as if the adaptability of a virtual keyboard to fit the function at hand is of little consequence.
Needless to say, not only IMHO are you wrong now, but you will be proven wrong in the years to come.
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lol, you seriously think a touchscreen keyboard is better then tactical feedback?
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Switch? With so many outstanding issues with iPhone 3G, and Apple has no clue how to fix them???
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@Ian
Yeah, that was a bold statement, I was feeling myself at the moment, lol. I may be proven wrong in the years to come and I look forward to being proven wrong because that will mean a virtual qwerty keyboard was developed that will have blown our minds unlike the ones currently found on the iPhone, or the Instinct, or the Dare, etc…
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I have used Blackberry in a corporate environment as well as WinMo. I now have an iPhone and love it. I have none of the problems with 3G or stability that others have had BUT the iPhone as it stands today would not work in the business world. Any big business that thinks of switching will usually give devices to the IT staff first to see if they can secure and manage them. The iPhone would fail when it comes to ease of provisioning and basic functions like email, contacts, calendar.
Again I love my iPhone and I make do with its shortcomings, but many others would not and could not. IT guys find work arounds, but business people would scream to go back to their Blackberry.
I think when software rev 2.5 or 3.0 comes out the iPhone will be business capable.
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Not to mention the fact that a BANK would not be exactly keen to deploy iTunes on all of its desktops internally.
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Actually, HSBC is trialling iPhones and IpodTouch models in it’s uk support environments. Doesn’t mean they will switch to them across the board. HSBC does use Blackberry’s Group wide but especially in the UK get very poor service from Vodafone.
Blackberrys have a poor Development environment and syncing devices is a constant headache.
HSBC likes to evaluate a lot of new age micro devices and the iPhone platform’s dev tools and adaptability are a very attractive option.
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Makes sense for a bank where security should be the primary consideration. With BB’s, I presume there is some kind of remote wipe or at least a way to manage the devices. With the iphone does such an infrastructure exist? Dont think the sliding panels and fancy ads make up for a secure device for your banking workforce.
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I phone is not ready for many banks for several reasons including S.E.C./SOX compliance, and simple business needs not there yet.
- No SMS block ability
- No SMS recording
- No blocking of other email accounts on corporate env.
- No higher security password (4 char vs 6 or 7)
- No device encryption
- No real business apps (Reuters, Bloomberg - subcription based, Thompson, FactSet, Law, etc.)
- No OTA way to lock various parts of the iPhone for more secure portions of the business (i.e. camera) via real policy rules.
- Any real business app would need to multitask..right now this is not “officially” possible.
- no remote restore (over the air).
- no remote audit capabilities
- constacts loading..is still slow..even after 2.0.2
- outside of Exchange…there is no real support for GroupWise or Lotus Notes.
- many apps still crash..proper testing tools for developers needed.
The enterprise activation or custom app load method proposed by Apple exposes some of the process to a web server on the internet…not wise.
On the hardware side…
-no on-the-fly replaceable battery. Although a battery sleeve can be bought for $99..bringing the batt life, cost and size of the unit higher.
- new unit does not bring a case (as you know business users want their leather or plastic case with the unit).
- no flash with the camera
- no official AT&T or Apple unlocking of iphone for overseas long term business travelers
- 3G still has major issues on the iPhone.
- screen is easily cracked (as bad as Blackberry Bold -
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no spell checking..
no cut and paste..
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@ Unkle. LOL. I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything….
I have a BB and an iphone. In earnest, I can type faster on my iPhone (it takes time to physically press down each button and, after a long email, that time adds up). I’ve even raced other people who have had their BBs for quite some time and who swear they can type faster on them. It’s close, but I’ve beat them. I truly believe that those who bash the iphone’s virtual keyboard (I can’t speak for any other phone’s keyboard) either have never actually tried, have tried it but haven’t been shown how to use it the correct way (and end up disillusioned in a similar fashion to that of people who’ve tried T9 or Word on candy bar phones, without realizing there’s a scroll through button when the word they were looking for doesn’t come up), and/or have tried it, know how to “just work with the phone” so to speak, but don’t give it enough time (a few days) for its dictionary to learn certain frequently used words. I.e., it takes a few times for the iPhone to recognize “f$#ck” as that word instead of “duck.”
I will readily admit, however, that there are legitimate reasons for some people to not get the iphone. Staying within the aforementioned context, woman with long nails and men (or woman) with fat fingers have a good reason to stick with bb.
I also recognize that BB have better security features and, for that reason, many enterprises have and will continue to shy away from the Iphone’s implementation.
But to claim out of hand (as some have done in the past) that tactile feedback is a must, belies, well the truth. Unless I have some sort of genetic defect, err advantage, if I don’t need tactile feedback to type faster than those on BB, neither do you.
Apple will improve its security protocols through firmware updates and more and more people will realize that virtual keyboards aren’t as bad as some have made them out to be (and are indeed beneficial considering that they can be adapted to the application at hand and in fact removed completely for a bigger screen when that too is desirable). Which is to say nothing of the “tactile feedback “that the future will bring for virtual keyboards themselves.
RIM realizes all this, which is largly why they’re developing the Thunder (or Storm…).
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I don’t think any business model would appropriate iPhones because everyone would be busy playing Super Monkey Ball.
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Oh, and as far as this whole business with physical keyboards vs. virtual keyboards… I can type on my Blackberry Curve faster than most people can type on a computer, but I can type equally fast on my iPhone as I can on my Blackberry. They keyboard issue is a matter of preference.
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Not that I didn’t call bull-crap on this when it was first posted or anything …
The iPhone is hardly a serious business phone. There is no comparison to a BB for a large enterprise. No way the iPhone catches on in the business world beyond small companies or those that love to flaunt their love for all things Apple.
In the real business world, stability and functionality trump aesthetics. Therefore, the iPhone will not work in it’s current incarnation.
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@ Marc I’d tend to agree with your latter statement, though, I believe most people’s predilections tend towards the virtual keyboard when they give it an honest chance. The opposite is most certainly true when they don’t even try a device with one, or even if they do but aren’t aware of how to make the best out of its functionality.
As for your first remark, things like “Playing Super Monkey Ball” or having itunes on employees computers aren’t a deal breaker since these things can be restricted by employers if they so choose. At least with respect to apps, itunes songs, youtube use, and even Safari use, “parental” controls are already available on the current Iphone to restrict employee use. I imagine that itunes could similarly be restricted, if not now, then in a future update.
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Just the idea that large corporations will need to deploy iTunes to workstations is comical alone. No surprise that this was a bogus story. I like the Playstation analogy. It pretty much sums it up. Yes, even Apple can’t just snap their fingers and expect a consumer based product to be absorbed so easily by enterprise customers. Maybe after a couple major releases they will get their act together. Apple and growing pains? I love it. They are more like Microsoft after all. Just with a much prettier UI.
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I’ve never understood why anyone would waste time posting about a company they hate. Then again, I’ve never understood why anyone would hate a company. But hey, if you’ve got the energy for that, I have some free advice: get a date ASAP. Getting out of mom’s basement would be good also.
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That guy would be lucky to stay on the job if he did cause HSBC to switch the plaftform. So many issues he has to deal with, including basic functionality of making a phone calls and not be cut off. Imagine the CEO is calling and the phone was cut off. Anyway, I would suggest he starts looking for another job. Probably knock on Apple’s door and see if they need a salesman.
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Only time will tell whether the iPhone will be accepted by the enterprise because of superior technology and blackberry relegated to a niche market. In the meanwhile enjoy bashing each other.
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I’m sure they would not be too eager to switch over to the iPhone. Yes, a few here and there maybe, but that’s about it. iPhones at this point in time would be far too unwieldy to update in the thousands. Ad hoc updating only allows 100 at a time. There are missing security features in Exchange on the iPhone platform.
As an Apple fan and investor, I want the iPhone to be able to be deployed by the hundreds of thousands, but I can clearly see Apple just doesn’t have the tools in place that would make IT departments give up the BlackBerry solution with it’s ease of administration. As it is , I think that Apple is having a difficult enough time with iPhone consumer use, so I think Apple should hold off until consumers are satisfied and then build some serious tools for iPhone administration that could handle thousands of iPhones wirelessly. I don’t want to see the first enterprise entry screwed up and lessen Apple’s chances to get the iPhone into other companies.
Somebody in another forum had mentioned that the claimed iPhone switchover for HSBC was a way of HSBC trying to get leverage over RIM to get a cheaper price. Now I’m certain this was the reason.
RIM will continue to dominate business market share for at least another six months. The iPhone is not ready to take over yet.
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@Jimmykicks
Why not? They ARE dumb enough to convert all their ATM’s to Windows. They ARE dumb enough to require IE for online banking. Why would they worry about iTunes?
I have a Blackberry for work. I hate it. The damn keyboard takes up so much space that I can’t read most messages without scrolling forever. Reading attachments? Forget it… impossible. Use the browser for ANYTHING? Forget it! I would gladly trade that damn persistent keyboard for a virtual one any day. Afterall…. it isn’t my damn workstation. I shouldn’t be typing away all day long on the thing. You are right…. it is pretty good at pushing email down ‘most’ of the time, that is about all it is good for. So if Enterprise ready means a featureless cell phone with a text pager bolted onto it, then the Blackberry is definitely Enterprise ready. Give me the iPhone in the Enterprise any day.
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