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"Halliburton Abandons BlackBerry, Picks up iPhone"

By Jameson Berkow, Financial Post


Halliburton Co., among the largest energy services providers in the world, became the latest major enterprise customer to abandon Research In Motion Ltd. on Tuesday in favour of Apple Inc.


Photograph by: Jonathan Ernst, Reuters files

BlackBerry continues to lose its status as the world’s premiere business phone brand.

Halliburton Co., among the largest energy services providers in the world, became the latest major enterprise customer to abandon Research In Motion Ltd. on Tuesday in favour of Apple Inc., the Canadian company’s largest rival. The Houston, Texas-based firm plans to replace about 4,500 company-issued BlackBerrys with iPhones within two years.

“Over the next year, we will begin expanding the use of our mobile technology by transitioning from the BlackBerry (RIM) platform that we currently use to smartphone technology via the iPhone,” reads an excerpt from an internal memo to Halliburton staff obtained by the AppleInsider blog.

The company confirmed the transition to several media outlets on Tuesday, saying the move was being made “in order to better support our mobile applications initiatives.”

Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM has been losing ground to Apple and other devices based on Google Inc.’s Android platform for years in the consumer market. RIM’s share of the United States smartphone market has plummeted from a high of 42.1% two years ago to just 16% by the end of 2011.

Among businesses, which have long served as company’s core customers, RIM has also been gradually falling out of favour. In November 2010, computer maker Dell Inc. ditched approximately 25,000 BlackBerry smartphones and issued employees with devices based on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone 7 platform instead.

Apple has long used its quarterly earnings calls to publicize stats which highlight the company’s push into BlackBerry’s backyard. Between 60% and 80% of all Fortune 500 companies are considering supporting the iPhone on their corporate networks, according to the Cupertino, Calif.-based company.

That figure shot up to 91% in a recent survey by market research firm Gartner Inc., the results of which were published last September.

Two of the largest companies on that list, Bank of America and Citigroup, which together boast more than 500,000 staff, have been looking into switching from BlackBerry to iPhone for more than a year. That does not include the massive impact Apple’s iPad tablet is having on enterprise device sales.

Part of the reason for RIM’s waning enterprise dominance is that BlackBerry is no longer the only device major IT departments consider secure enough for corporate use.

Just last week, Google Inc.’s Android platform reportedly received approval for use by certain members of the United States military and government agencies and bring-your-own-device policies (BYOD) are becoming increasingly popular in the enterprise.

As RIM rushes to bring its highly anticipated BlackBerry 10 platform to market later this year, the company’s shareholders are undoubtedly hoping the “unstoppable BYOD train coming down the tracks” can be halted by the new software.

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