“Companies like Bausch & Lomb Inc. are buying iPhones for their employees, in some cases replacing BlackBerry devices,” Kane and Worthen report. “Earlier this year, the eye-care products company made iPhone the standard issue device for its sales force. Now, about 1,200 salespeople have one.”
“While BlackBerrys are still the most popular corporate device, with 70% of IT departments currently supporting the gadget, about 29% of businesses now support the iPhone, up from 17% last year and none in 2007 when the iPhone first launched, according to Forrester Research.,” Kane and Worthen report. “One catalyst is that employees are clamoring for iPhones, even if they have to pay for all or part of it themselves. AT&T Inc. CEO Randall Stephenson said in an interview last week that about 40% of its iPhones are sold to companies or individuals with corporate discounts.”
Kane and Worthen report, “Bausch & Lomb adopted the iPhone because of the device’s ability to access spreadsheets and contact-management software, although getting locked into AT&T’s network in the U.S. was a negative, said Simon Woods, vice president for technology and applications.”
MacDailyNews Take: Hey, come on now, it’s only negative if you want a reliable signal.
Kane and Worthen report, “[Apple’s] addition of encryption is what convinced Joe Drouin, chief information officer at staffing company Kelly Services Inc., to offer iPhones to employees. Since January, the company has given them a choice between iPhones and BlackBerrys and more than half picked the iPhone.”
Kane and Worthen report, “Business-software makers have also developed apps for Apple’s App Store. Salesforce.com Inc., which has 500,000 mobile users for its contact-management software, says iPhone owners outnumber BlackBerry owners three to one.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “ilovemymac” for the heads up.]