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Thu, 14 Aug 2008 HSBC to swap 200,000 BlackBerrys for iPhones?

Report claims that the "world's largest bank" is looking to trade-up to Apple's mobile phone

Matthew JC. Powell Macworld Australia

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At the moment, Research In Motion's BlackBerry is very much the dominant player in the corporate smartphone market - a position it has held for some time and in which it is well and truly entrenched. It's the game to beat if Apple wants to boast about enterprise adoption of the iPhone, and so far it's got little more than a few careful sniffs. One of those sniffers, however, happens to be one of the biggest companies on the planet.

According to a report, HSBC is considering rolling out 200,000 iPhones to its global workforce, which numbers in excess of 330,000 with a technology budget of $US6 billion. Presently HSBC issues its employees with BlackBerry handsets.

While other companies have expressed doubts over the iPhone's suitability for enterprise deployment, largely because of the BlackBerry's superior e-mail capabilities, HSBC CIO for Australia and New Zealand said Apple had been "pretty smart with the design".

At this point, of course, HSBC is doing little more than investigating the technology, as it does with any new technological innovation that may or may not assist its business. Like many corporations it's got an installed infrastructure built around BlackBerry and shifting that would not be trivial.

However, the mere fact of HSBC's interest (along with a reported 165 companies on the Fortune 500) does demonstrate that the iPhone is beginning to garner attention from the big end of town.

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Comments received


Mark Hattersley said on Thu, 14 Aug 2008

This is interesting. Especially given our thoughts on the BlackBerry 9000 Bold (review up shortly).

James said on Thu, 14 Aug 2008

They will live to regret it.

The battery is useless, the 3G is half baked, reliant on iTunes (Apple's move to push Safari out by stealth was noted) and it has real problems with security and corporate usability. Lack of corporate support and the need to mail in the mobile for a battery change is a joke - really.

It's a great fun phone but that is all it is.

ZABAMAN said on Thu, 14 Aug 2008

When something comes along that is so easy to use, has all the features you need, and changes the way we interact with technology it would be foolish to ignore. The points James raises are indeed significant but not unsurmountable. I am sure that we will see more an more companies dipping their toe. It is an amazing product.

Paul Bridle said on Thu, 14 Aug 2008

Isn't it amazing that Apple can be as bad as James says, and still command the interest and support. Yet Microsoft bring out Vista and it creates all sorts of issues. Is it because Apple learns from its mistakes?

jukka isorinne said on Thu, 14 Aug 2008

It is very difficult for me to understand what is so splendid in the iPhone 3G.
This phone lacks everything. The only excellency it carries, is the new technology with the user friendlyness including the large touch display. As a broser worthless without Adobe Flash, missing Java and MS Office, MSS, the list of missing functions is endless. Let's take the functions of BlackBerry 9000 Bold, Nokia N96, Samsung Omnia i900 in compearance with the iPhone 3G. Study them and forget iPhone 3G "Classic". When iPhone 3G Pro Plus comes with the above and changable battery, expandable memory card slot, bluetooth stereo, TV, video recording with a serious 8 MPixel camera and so on and so on, iPhone 3G may be interesting alternative, but why should we, when the products covering these features are already here. Be wellcome iPhone 3G Pro Plus.

Steve Smith said on Thu, 14 Aug 2008

I don't think apple is a serious challenge to RIM yet. But there's a lot of exchange business with commitments to activesync and winmobile. Using iphone in that infrastructure is both easy and a vast improvement for the user.

James said on Thu, 14 Aug 2008

Sorry Steve - the user interface that does not cut & paste is not a vast improvement. It is a nice shiny toy but not up to corporate standards.

I said nothing about Vista - MobileMe was not a learnt mistake and neither is non-changeable batteries.

James said on Thu, 14 Aug 2008

Sorry Steve - the user interface that does not cut & paste is not a vast improvement. It is a nice shiny toy but not up to corporate standards.

I said nothing about Vista - MobileMe was not a learnt mistake and neither is non-changeable batteries.

Pete said on Thu, 14 Aug 2008

Found this on the Macworld US site:
Troubleshooting iPhone and iPod touch issues

Worth a read

benfrain.com said on Fri, 15 Aug 2008

Whilst the shortfalls of the iPhone are well documented, and largely irrefutable, people assume this is reason enough to write off the product or label it a toy. The simple fact of the matter is the majority of iPhone users can (and do) use the majority of the functions. Conversely, an opposing product, such as the Nokia N95/N96 packs in far more technology (and arguably features) but the majority of users are unable to fathom out, or simply don't have the patience to fiddle around getting them to work.

Daniel said on Fri, 15 Aug 2008

James, with all respect but you are really just not up to date with those comments. First of all a large firm looking at a new phone have taken all into consideration. All phones out there have their downside, and all are OS dependant (read tied). There are now many third party (corporate) solutions out there (time management, server checks etc). Personally I know one use a first generation (hacked) iPhone with no problems at work...

James said on Fri, 15 Aug 2008

Daniel - I work for a massive corporate company who would not buy a phone that could not be supported up to 2nd line in house. Sending a phone away for a battery swap is is not something most companies would tolerate.

And with the latest "troubleshooting issues" the firmware has a long way to go.

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