RIM has taken another shot in what it hopes will be the road to recovery. Qantas Airlines has announced plans to replace all 1,300 corporate-sponsored BlackBerry devices in its employ with iPhones. Not only is the iPhone favored by upper management and polled staff members over the Blackberry, the move is expected to save Australia’s national airline millions of dollars per year.
“The iPhone offers a user-friendly interface and simple access to emails, contacts and calendars, as well as meeting all Qantas’s security requirements,” said Chief Information Officer Paul Jones. “Transition from the Blackberry to the iPhone is part of Qantas’s broader mobility strategy, and once complete will result in significant cost savings.
In regards to other devices supplied by crew members, Jones added that Qantas is “working towards being able to provide support for Android devices on a ‘bring-your-own’ basis.”
IBM Australia has recently ditched the platform as well, and savings of $1.4 million per year for 500 users is expected. Gartner analyst Geoff Johnson estimates the total cost of managing a single corporate BlackBerry is approximately $2600 per user per year, including the cost of the hardware.
