HSBC, the worlds largest banking group, nay the worlds largest company period, with an estimated 330,00 global employees is mulling over the possibility of dropping their employees BlackBerry handsets, for iPhone 3Gs.
Such a move could put an iPhone 3G into the hands of some 200,000 members of the HSBC staff, quite the staggering number indeed. HSBC’s Australia and New Zealand chief information officer, Brenton Hush, told ZDNet Australia today that “We are actually reviewing iPhones from a HSBC Group perspective … and when I say that, I mean globally.”
A decision of this magnitude would likely lead to one of the largest iPhone 3G orders the world has ever seen.
“A decision on a piece of hardware like that would potentially be deployed, conservatively, to 200,000 people,” said Hush. “You know, it’s a big decision, especially when you have an existing fleet out there.”
Many corporations had passed on the first generation iPhone due to limited availability and the devices’ lack of Microsoft Exchange support, opting instead for Research In Motion’s BlackBerry.
Should HSBC take the iPhone plunge and make the device their official corporate handset, it would undoubtedly come as a major setback for RIM. When asked if he believed that the BlackBerry possesses superior email functionality, Hush responded saying, “No, I don’t. I think [the iPhone] would change some underlying infrastructure considerations from an enterprise perspective. But [Apple] have been pretty smart with the design.” No time-frame for the decision has been made as it has been deemed a rather low ranking priority.
[Article]
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
