JPMorgan gives its investment bankers Apple iPads in ‘clear and present danger for RIM’

“JPMorgan Chase & Co. will give its investment bankers iPads to provide an additional mobile tool as Apple Inc. expands its domain to Wall Street, threatening Research in Motion Ltd. in a market it traditionally dominated,” Emre Peker reports for Bloomberg.

“Apple is building on its momentum in the tablet space, leveraging its 95 percent market share to expand from its traditional consumer base into the corporate market as RIM readies a rival device, the BlackBerry PlayBook,” Peker reports.

MacDailyNews Take: Again, as we said yesterday, nobody with a brain is excited about a RIM tablet. The product is well outside their core competency (outmoded cellphones featuring beards-of-buttons) and they have no ecosystem of which to speak.

Pekr continues, “The Canadian maker of smartphones is trying to catch up with Apple as banks including Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG unveil applications for the iPad and Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. consider letting employees use iPhones instead of Wall Street’s 11-year-old device of choice, the BlackBerry. ‘Apple represents a clear and present danger for RIM going forward,’ said Brian Marshall, an analyst at Gleacher & Co. ‘For the first time you have a viable alternative to secure mobile communications and by and large we see people moving away from the BlackBerry platform in droves in favor of the iPhone and the iPad.'”

“JPMorgan, the second-largest U.S. lender by assets behind Bank of America, will distribute iPads free of charge to all associates in its global investment banking division, the Nov. 24 e-mail shows. Employees will get to keep the device as long as they remain at the unit until the pilot program ends on May 1, 2011,” Pekr reports. “Bankers will be able to access e-mails, contacts, calendar and attachments via Microsoft Outlook, as well as have the ability to mark-up and annotate confidential documents and make client presentations, according to the e-mail. They will also be allowed to download applications for personal use. ‘There are a variety of ways to leverage the iPad. Some work off-the-shelf whilst others rely on JPMorgan software/security tools,’ the managing directors said. ‘“Depending on its success we will evaluate if we should repeat this one time initiative and/or expand it to others.'”

Full article, with information about many other firms that are dumping antiquated RIM BlackBerries for Apple iPhones and iPads, here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]