Qantas Ditches Blackberry Smartphones, Replaces With iPhones
Research In Motion can’t catch a break, not only are consumers ditching their Blackberry devices, now entire company’s are joining in. The popular airline Qantas announced on Monday that it was leaving RIM behind and adopting Apple iPhone devices for the company’s 1,300 corporate-sponsored smartphones.
The iPhone is favored by Qantas executives and by leaving behind the Blackberry platform the company expects to save millions of dollars in network support.
According to Chief Information Officer Paul Jones:
“The iPhone offers a user-friendly interface and simple access to emails, contacts and calendars, as well as meeting all Qantas’s security requirements. Transition from the Blackberry to the iPhone is part of Qantas’s broader mobility strategy, and once complete will result in significant cost savings.
Qantas is also expected to provide full Google Android support for crew member devices, a program they are calling a ‘bring-your-own’ device program.
The airline joined IBM Australia which recently ditched RIM devices to save $1.4 million per year for 5oo employees.
Gartner analyst Geoff Johnson puts the cost at managing a single corporate BlackBerry at $2600 per user per year when the cost of the smartphone is included.
Other businesses have been dropping Blackberry because of cost saving measures and the company’s failure to adapt new technologies at the same pace as Apple and Google.
Troubles at RIM continue to mount, the cellular company was recently hit with a $147 million charge for infringing on an Mformation Technology patent regarding the mobile management of software. RIM also announced in late June that the Blackberry 10 OS would be delayed until at least early 2013.
