Business People Targeted By Blackberry And Iphone As Business Smartphones Heat Up

The RIM (Research in Motion) Blackberry has long been the most popular smartphone brand among business users. For many reasons, including its professionalism, the fact that nearly all blackberry handsets have a hardware keyboard, and, most importantly, the fact that it has already been standardised. Businesses have not looked at alternatives for a very long time.

However, in recent times, the iPhone has started to receive attention as a possible alternative.

The iPhone has made some great strides into territory that was long the exclusive territory of the Blackberry. For example, the iPhone now is almost entirely compatible with Microsoft Exchange, a frequently used business suite, with calendar, email, and contact collection. Hard drives can be encrypted and secured, which is excellent for companies that have sensitive data, and phones can be imaged so the same phone is rolled out to the entire workplace. In fact, these features are so compelling that an estimated forty per cent of all new iPhones are being sold to businesses for such use.

It also now has some features that not all Blackberries offer. For example, Apple recently offered the ability to remotely erase a lost or stolen phone, which gives more security to sensitive data. Also, Apple has the famous application store, which, while oriented towards the consumer market, still has some valuable applications for use. This is especially true for companies which are developing on the iPhone platform, and nearly all companies offer some sort of application on the iPhone these days.

However, RIM still likely offers the better phone for business users. For example, the Blackberry has an extremely far better email system, as RIM has been working on their email implementation for years. The RIM email system has every feature that a person could ever want, and probably everything that a person uses on a desktop application, such as Microsoft Outlook. Also, companies right now trust RIM, and while RIM does not have as many security features as the iPhone, these features are time tested and definitely more than enough. Even remote erasure is available, though that costs extra on a Blackberry. But the one feature that RIM has that absolutely beats Apple is customisation. While the iPhone can be only customized on the surface, RIM offers complete customisation that can be imaged across an entire fleet of telephones. This is IT bliss and the reason why RIM is still the champion in the corporate market.