Apple gearing up for enterprise battle, poaching RIM employees?

By on Nov 24, 2010 at 1:01 PM
Business November 24, 2010

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that in the last 18 months, Apple has hired at least five employees of the RIM enterprise team. They also speculate that there are many more employees that have, or are considering, jumping ship. Some of the employees that left RIM includes the Head of Strategy Sales who is now Head of Enterprise iPhone Sales at Apple. With over 80% of Fortune 500 companies trialling or using iPhones, there’s little doubt that Apple is gearing for a huge battle in the enterprise sector. The latest release of iOS 4.2 is the best version yet for corporate integration, and with the iPad finally getting the popular iPhone OS 4 features, we can only imagine things will be heating up even more in the coming months.

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  • Anonymous

    they get to develop for a more innovative platform and im sure they getting bigger paychecks so it looks like a win win for those involved

  • Lala

    but, but, but, RIM rules enterprise and so long as Crapple and Fandroid focus on your average consumer, RIM will continue to make money b/c everyone who uses it is a business person not a kid living on mommy’s or daddy’s credit card…oh wait…

    • Anonymous

      Actually, you’re wrong. Apple is making big dents in the enterprise. Read much? Both BoA, and Citibank are making iPhones available to all employees, eventually phasing out BB’s…

      • Len

        Just because they are available doesn’t necessarily mean people will automatically throw away their BBs and switch to an iPhone. There is a general misconception that since iPhones are finally being made available to corporate, that everyone will choose that over a BlackBerry.. sorry but you are terribly mistaken. Corporate is not issuing iPhones to their employees. They are simply allowing that device to be an option.

      • Anonymous

        I guess the folks over at BoA and Citibank are wrong then huh? They specifically stated that they would be issuing their employees with the devices..but hey, sounds like you have an in…you’re far more knowledgable then those that work there….I mean who should folks believe..them, or some schmuck on BGR…LMAO….

  • Retrodude

    “With over 80% of Fortune 500 companies trialling or using iPhones”

    Yeah but don’t expect the companies to deploy them. Employee’s bring their own devices.

    • Anonymous

      Where do u work? Not too many fortune 500 companies allow employees to bring in their devices…

      I swear, 90% of the people posting on this topic are morons, and probably never worked in a corporate setting…sorry..Wal-Mart doesn’t count either…LOL

      • Anonymous

        Actually, nefan65, you are very very wrong. The new trend is the “consumerization of IT” and letting employess use what they want to access certain company resources. That is being down either by directly connecting personal devices to Exchagne ActiveSync, or using products like Good Mobile Messaging that keep the corporate data in a “seperate container” on iPhone and Android devices.. That way in the event their data is wiped, it just basically removes the program from the device, leaving the personal data in place.

        It’s a win/win situation. Companies don’t have to buy and support as many corporate devices and the users can use their personal devices.

        Hell, even RIM has some policies around “Personal Liable” devices that will just wipe the company data off newer devices. The day of syncing only company owned deviecs is long gone….

      • Anonymous

        RIM? Irrelevant…they’ll be a non-factor by 2012…

        As for the rest of your statement, I don’t disagree that’s the “trend”, but it’ll be years before it’s standard practice.

      • Retrodude

        Lets compare paychecks to see you works at wallmart doughboy.

        The future is employees bringing in their own devices.

      • Anonymous

        Sure compare….fire away…buttnut!

  • gquaglia

    If RIM loses the Enterprise, they have only themselves to blame. Like Palm did, they clung to their past glories feeling they knew best! RIM will not be one of the big players in the mobile market in the future.

  • mike

    What it all comes down to is the device itself. RIM makes a better messaging/communication device than Apple. Apple may have the App Store and whatnot, but when it comes to a corporate exec banging out e-mails while waiting in the TSA line for a flight, RIM is vastly superior. End. Of. Story.

    Until Apple makes a phone with a keyboard, they will not overtake RIM.

    • Anonymous

      LOL..Ya..that’s why people in corporations are hanging on to BB’s; because of the keyboard…

      Apple already has taken over RIM, where the hell have you been? Under a rock?

  • Jeffro01

    Until the iOS allows for different notifications and signatures for different email accounts I still can not call it a true enterprise competitor. It’s sad that iOS STILL has such a horrid and limited notification system…

  • Anonymous

    iOS needs a face lift if Apple expects to make inroads in corporate America.

  • QNX Please

    5 whole employees!!!! Wowzers! BGR must have got another iBoner over this news….How many ex Apple employees has RIM hired? The iPhone will never become a staple in the corporate sector until it fixes its complete lack of security, and horrible email. With RIM putting QNX one its phones next year we are in for an intense smartphone battle in the next few years. RIM still excels in many areas over Apple, where-as Apple only excels in flashiness areas like screen resolution, OS look and then its abundance of App’s. Which wont mean squat when QNX rolls out and Apps from AppStore and Android market will be able to run on the QNX system.

    • BestBuyKnowItAll

      BGR writers are Apple robots. I’m surprised that there isn’t a story on what side of the bed Steve Jobs woke up on this morn. The are all like North Koren civilians bowing down to Steve Jobs and all his Apple products. Makes for good comedy. Apple fanboys have always made me laugh!

      • Anonymous

        We are not so sure that is what makes you laugh. In saying that though we support your right to laugh.

        Your obvious anger is surprising though. There is nothing wrong with the number two products you use.

  • Attila S

    iphone without pin massaging will never replace blackberry.
    also without dropping calls, my blackberry never drop calls my iphone does.

  • Anonymous

    Sorry Apple, you had your shot but your silly requirement of iTunes and still stuck on the AT&T regional carrier makes you a joke.

    I don’t mind having to have iTunes for syncing media and stuff. But I can’t deploy an iDevice to somebody because they can’t activate it until they get home and install iTunes because there is no way in hell I would deploy iTunes to a corporate machine. Android requires ZERO local software and WP7 does require Zune, but not to activate the device.

    We had an apple “enterprise” team come visit us at work and they were “enterprise” in name only. They don’t have a clue. They make good consumer phone, I have no problem saying that… and if people want to use their personal phones to get company email we can support that no problem. But to actually buy and support a corporate iPhone? Really? There is no reason to do that.

    • hockey88

      Let us not omit the fact that selling enterprise on a single phone form factor v. multiple phone form factors (camera – non camera; touch screen – non touch screen) is like selling or leasing office coffee machines that only brew espresso. May be the best espresso but not everyone drinks espresso.

      • Anonymous

        You are simply tasting it wrong…. haha

        Sent from my bean grinder

  • Anonymous

    Software and features aside, we have all seen how rough we are and how people can be with their company issued phones. I can never see a day where company’s will issue expensive glass front and back phones that can’t take a single drop. Sure more and more people are bringing their own phones but thats not a percentage worth chasing (more than they are doing now) as suggested in this article.

    • Anonymous

      What will happen is enterprise will allow employees to ‘roll their own’ – give the employee a yearly stipend, say $200 for a device. It must meet minimum requirements, speed, coverage, features – but its NOT an IT asset. The same will happen for laptops fairly soon as well. The less on the books, the better.

      When faced with that world, you absolutely must account for all devices coming into the enterprise. Functions provided by Good or Lotus Traveler are a couple of examples of embracing all technology devices, not just the most popular.

  • Sonya

    Considering every Apple product get’s jail broken in 2 days, if they are thinking about tackling the business users they need to think again. They would have to beef up the security, design another phone with RIMS keyboard but with Apples style, have the best email system available and a better notification system. THEN they would most likely put RIM to sleep.

    • Anonymous

      We use Good Mobile Messaging for our Andoid and iDevices and if it detects a jailbroken iOS device it wipes the corporate data off the device. Pretty sweet.

  • Oye Consolte!

    I too, left RIM for Apple. But as a consumer.

  • KCRic

    Yeah, apple in the corporate world. That will go over like their Xserve did, just like a lead balloon.

  • Rocker

    This is such a sad post by BGR. As an Apple user…come on…this is an old rehash of last year’s news. “Gearing up for enterprise battle”…with what…5 employees and a list of jail broken products. Sorry, but not for awhile. And the more that mobile payments come into the picture, the more BB will start to stand out.

  • jayrock

    please this is a joke, as an AT&T employee i deal with corporate email problems on iphones everyday. They still have a long way to go to be a contender in the corporate world. In the consumer sector however my opinion is vastly dif

    • http://twitter.com/SParKlngCyaNide SparklingCyanide

      well then you know just how shitty Att is as a company, even back when it was just a ma’ bell company it was terrible. I pitty you, but then again you deserve to be with a company as horrible a quality as you are. Enjoy! – D

  • Anonymous

    Given the long term roadmap of the Xserve, I certainly can see corporate IT supporting Apple in a big way. NOT.

  • Hewiebolas

    Everything for Apple is so difficult!!! Steve Jobs need to FREE UP the IOS, so many people across the world would like to use his products, but are crippled by the fact that they have to jailbreak the products to use them. FREE up the IOS, so that they can be used in any country in the world… The APPS store will always make money, Why lock a phone to a particular phone company, and if that has to be done, why not sell the unlock codes. If unlock codes were available then persons would not have to be going out of their way to jailbreak these devices.. I do hope that Steve Jobs does not take the technology to his grave with him, but pass on the knowledge to someone else.

  • toemaytoe

    Until apple can do something as basic as handle email competently I don’t see anything happening on the enterprise side. I just switched from a black berry to the new iphone 4 and while the phone itself is nice and the apps are “fun”, it is horrible for email. I’m giving it a few months and then if I don’t see some improvement I’m selling this tech toy and going back to blackberry.

    • suckaaaaa!!

      Haven’t u heard of activesync??? iPhone email is just fine…

  • Ggg5gebhardt

    Apple need PUSH email to compete with RIM and SECURITY! Apple lacks both

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