Pfizer transitioning 'huge' number of BlackBerry-using employees to iPhone & Android
With a belief that Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry is in its death throes, major corporations and organizations continue to transition their employees away from the platform, with the latest discontinuation coming from pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
The world's largest drug-maker recently sent out a memo to employees referring to BlackBerry's "volatile state," and recommending that workers plan to migrate to Apple's iPhone or a device running Google's Android platform once their current contract expires. Pfizer has 90,000 employees, with a "huge" portion of those using BlackBerry, according to sources who spoke with AllThingsD.
Pfizer is just the latest company to abandon BlackBerry as the struggling smartphone maker continues to wither away. Prior to the arrival of the iPhone and Android devices, BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Motion, was the dominant company among enterprise and government users.
The company recently and unsuccessfully attempted to sell off its assets, gaining interest from tech giants including Apple, Microsoft and Lenovo. But companies were each said to be interested in BlackBerry's patents, not the company's hardware division or existing customer base.
But the BlackBerry Board of Directors decided against breaking up and selling the struggling company piecemeal. It also turned down a takeover bid from Fairfax Capital.
The company's former CEO Thorsten Heins resigned earlier this month, allowing former Sybase Chief Executive John Chen to take over the reins of BlackBerry. Since becoming BlackBerry CEO, Chen has attempted to convey to customers that his company has "significant financial strength for the long haul," and has pledged to "rebuild BlackBerry for the benefit of all our constituencies."
Last month, BlackBerry was forced to lay off 40 percent of its workforce -- cuts so massive that they gained the attention of Apple and Intel, which held recruiting fairs near the company's headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario.
The world's largest drug-maker recently sent out a memo to employees referring to BlackBerry's "volatile state," and recommending that workers plan to migrate to Apple's iPhone or a device running Google's Android platform once their current contract expires. Pfizer has 90,000 employees, with a "huge" portion of those using BlackBerry, according to sources who spoke with AllThingsD.
Pfizer is just the latest company to abandon BlackBerry as the struggling smartphone maker continues to wither away. Prior to the arrival of the iPhone and Android devices, BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Motion, was the dominant company among enterprise and government users.
The company recently and unsuccessfully attempted to sell off its assets, gaining interest from tech giants including Apple, Microsoft and Lenovo. But companies were each said to be interested in BlackBerry's patents, not the company's hardware division or existing customer base.
But the BlackBerry Board of Directors decided against breaking up and selling the struggling company piecemeal. It also turned down a takeover bid from Fairfax Capital.
The company's former CEO Thorsten Heins resigned earlier this month, allowing former Sybase Chief Executive John Chen to take over the reins of BlackBerry. Since becoming BlackBerry CEO, Chen has attempted to convey to customers that his company has "significant financial strength for the long haul," and has pledged to "rebuild BlackBerry for the benefit of all our constituencies."
Last month, BlackBerry was forced to lay off 40 percent of its workforce -- cuts so massive that they gained the attention of Apple and Intel, which held recruiting fairs near the company's headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario.
Comments
Headline is about Pfizer, article is about blackberry. WTF.
For Blackberry, the loss of pharmaceutical company Pfizer must be a bitter pill to swallow! ;~/
[I][ Note to self: I apologize but fully expect that hitting "submit" will post this reply twice... but if I try to delete the unintended second post, I end up with four, FFS! ][/I]
My employer just announced the iPhone is now the official phone, another 25,000 iPhones sold.
25,000 iphones... that's a smidge over 90 minutes of total iPhone sales (Last quarter, Apple sold 16,000 iPhones an hour... 7x24)
People. Corporate phones are not the big market. While it will allow people to carry one phone instead of 2, corporations are 'followers' in the mobile market (as opposed to leaders back in the PC and Laptop days).
While Pfizer moving off of Blackberry is big news for blackberry (one more artery of sales just closed off), it's ho-hum for Apple... 90K is the morning quota for Foxconn today.
The good news is that as pfizer goes, so does it's supply chain, which probably rivals Apple. Every person who has to get a BES message to be notified of a shortage of raw materials for Viagra now will be able to consider a non-BBM phone for the work... again, relieving them of the 2 phone issue (or the BlackBerry iPad Duality). And Pfizer employees, families etc, are solidly in Apple's financial demographic, and so are their neighbors.
Why is this a big deal... TheOtherGeoff's Corollary to Metcalf's Law... The value of a mobile ecosystem grows by the square of the iDevices connecting to that ecosystem, raised by the purchasing power of their owner. If Corporations are people;-), they earn a lot of money per iPhone, and will tend to invest in their ecosystem to exploit it to make more money. This will bode well for the ITMS/iOS/iCloud and all the developers who build iOS first.
Maybe they should also stop whining about knock-off drugs.
The headline describes the article properly.
What happened here is that Fairffax withdrew their bid, at the end of the offer period. They couldn't raise the financing for it.
While 25,000 phones isn't important by itself, it's indicative of the way things are going. Blackberry sold over 20 million phones a year a year ago. If Apple gets two thirds of that business, that's important.
I think after the first security breach they will head on back to BlackBerry. I love my iPhone, but in a work environment android and iOS are not the ideal solution for a company that needs secure infrastructures.
25,000 iphones... that's a smidge over 90 minutes of total iPhone sales (Last quarter, Apple sold 16,000 iPhones an hour... 7x24)
People. Corporate phones are not the big market. While it will allow people to carry one phone instead of 2, corporations are 'followers' in the mobile market (as opposed to leaders back in the PC and Laptop days).
While Pfizer moving off of Blackberry is big news for blackberry (one more artery of sales just closed off), it's ho-hum for Apple... 90K is the morning quota for Foxconn today.
Actually it is big news because lots of people use what ever phone their employer provides them. If now they have an iPhone, that is another iPhone seen in the wild at an employee's home, business meeting, shopping etc. It is also provides Apple nice marketing, and perhaps more sales of other products such as Macs and iPods.
I think after the first security breach they will head on back to BlackBerry. I love my iPhone, but in a work environment android and iOS are not the ideal solution for a company that needs secure infrastructure.
Apple has a far more secure platform then Android. Part of the benefit of one source controlling app distribution. Further, with the latest iOS and phones Apple poured more resources into corporate security features.
The only area in which Blackberry is more secure is in email and messaging, where they go through Blackberry's NOC. Otherwise, there's no real difference. The iPhones has achieved FIPS-2 level 2 security clearance. Blackberry is higher, but only because of that.
The real question that needs to be asked is what percentage of people in an organization really need such high security? My last company had 85 people in it, but only a small number knew enough about the business so that what they said would have been a problem.
How may people who have Blackberry's are secretaries, with little knowledge that they would have on their phones? How many in the mail room? I'd bet that the majority of all the 460,000 in the Pentagon with Blackberry's don't need them. And that's Blackberry's problem, not the fact that a much smaller number MAY need them.
Most organizations work this way:
Some of us need the security of a Blackberry, so for convenience! we'll put everybody on them.
But now they realize they don't have to do that.
In addition, it's been noted that business and government lose hundreds of thousands of laptops, many with serious information on it. It hasn't stopped them from using, and losing them.
Apple has a far more secure platform then Android. Part of the benefit of one source controlling app distribution. Further, with the latest iOS and phones Apple poured more resources into corporate security features.
I do agree with you, Apple has in fact up their game in providing corporate features which I found surprising considering they dropped the Xserve and many server functions on Mac OS X and seemed to steer away from the corporate market. I still think though that BlackBerry is the champion in security, rarely have I heard about major security issues on BlackBerry devices of infrastructures.
Post of the day!
The only area in which Blackberry is more secure is in email and messaging, where they go through Blackberry's NOC. Otherwise, there's no real difference. The iPhones has achieved FIPS-2 level 2 security clearance. Blackberry is higher, but only because of that.
The real question that needs to be asked is what percentage of people in an organization really need such high security? My last company had 85 people in it, but only a small number knew enough about the business so that what they said would have been a problem.
How may people who have Blackberry's are secretaries, with little knowledge that they would have on their phones? How many in the mail room? I'd bet that the majority of all the 460,000 in the Pentagon with Blackberry's don't need them. And that's Blackberry's problem, not the fact that a much smaller number MAY need them.
Most organizations work this way:
Some of us need the security of a Blackberry, so for convenience! we'll put everybody on them.
But now they realize they don't have to do that.
This is a very valid point. I guess only time will tell if the iPhone and Android platforms are really solid in the enterprise market. The iPhone and Android platforms are still relatively new in the corporate world.
Anybody still using a Blackberry in 2013 is like somebody who still uses a mechanical typewriter, and they have no clue that word processors and computers exists.
Blackberry is done. The writing on the wall was visible many years ago already. It's time for them to go away completely now.
Anybody still using a Blackberry in 2013 is like somebody who still uses a mechanical typewriter, and they have no clue that word processors and computers exists.
Blackberry is done. The writing on the wall was visible many years ago already. It's time for them to go away completely now.
Exactly what people said about Apple in 1998, look where they are now. Weird that Apple, Google and Microsoft had such high interest in buying QNX and Blackberry's patent portfolio.