… as the iPhone chips away at RIM dominance
STANDARD Chartered is replacing the BlackBerry, currently its standard corporate communications device, with the iPhone, a move that could eventually result in thousands of bankers switching to the Apple device for business communication on the go.
Standard Chartered bankers said the London-based lender was giving its corporate BlackBerry users the option of switching to the iPhone, with the company agreeing to continue to pay monthly billing for business-related telephone and data services.
The process of switching email services started about a month ago. It is not yet clear how many of the Asia-focused bank’s 75,000 employees used company-issued BlackBerries or when the switchover could be completed.
Bankers at other financial institutions such as HSBC and Morgan Stanley have so far been restricted to the BlackBerry as the standard device issued by their firms for business communications.