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Clorox employees dump their Blackberries en masse...

2685 Views 21 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  topherpaquette, 
9
...And overwhemingly chose iPhone. I wish I could dump my clumsy old Blackberry 9700 for an iPhone or Android device. Hopefully this CIO's approach catches on.

...and got rid of company-issued Blackberries while letting workers choose between an iPhone or Android or Window Phone 7-powered smartphone. The company has issued 2,000 smartphones, 92% of which are iPhones. About 6% of the smartphones chosen were Android-based while 2% were Windows Phone 7 devices.
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Link: http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...s_Android_devices?taxonomyId=154&pageNumber=1
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J
Interesting. I've used both Blackberries and Android phones in enterprise environments and, to me, the Blackberry product is vastly superior in that application.

I realize that there's not a great deal of difference between BES and ActiveSync, but for doing volumes of corporate email, a touch screen just doesn't really cut it. I suspect the 'cool factor' and all the other stuff you can do with an iPhone or Android phone influenced the decision making process. I'd be really interested in how many would choose to go back to BB in six months or a year (like I did after 6 months with an Android).
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9
I have a BB running their latest-and-greatest OS6, and I'd kick it to the curb in a heartbeat for an iPhone 4. I've owned both platforms for several years.

BB is just tired and clumsy IMHO.
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T
I too have taken the plunge from my BlackBerry 8330 to go to a iPhone 3GS when work started paying for it. I didn't even get outside of my 14 day trial with the iPhone when I returned it for a BlackBerry 9700.

For work and the BES applications, the BlackBerry just does it better. Plus I'm a sucker for a physical keyboard.
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W
I generally love Apple products but the iPhone SUCKS for typing - I have never owned an iPhone myself but I use my wife's iPhone all the time.

The Blackberry has many other shortcomings but for emailing, texting and IMing it is far superior to an iPhone. I have also had an iPad for about a year and I find that it also is inferior to the Blackberry when it comes to entering text - I am far faster typing on my Blackberry than on the iPad as well.
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H
What surprised me is that of those that switched, 92% went Apple and only 6% went Android.
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C
I bet if their employees had bb's with b/w screens or much older phones, it would probably misrepresent the current bb models to other competitors.
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D
One month from now...

"Clorox stocks plunge as productivity falls, Angry Birds scores rise"
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9
At once time, I loved the BB keyboard, but they've lost their way since the 9700. They are no longer easy to type on, with smaller keys and in the case of my current unit, a periodically sticking key.

The build quality has also gotten markedly cheaper.

Don't get me wrong, iOS is not easy to type on either, especially with their miserable autocorrect, but BB is going in the wrong direction.
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J
hugh said:
What surprised me is that of those that switched, 92% went Apple and only 6% went Android.
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The answer is often influenced by the question.

I do agree that each generation of Blackberry seems to be skinnier thus making typing more difficult. That being said, this seems to be the industry standard since I was unable to find a keyboard as good as my old Blackberries by other manufacturers.
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T
I'm curious what the results would have been if they'd been offered new blackberries as well

how many would have stayed with BB?
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T
None of this surprises me, ask a classroom full of kids what they would choose and they would pick iphone.

The tech savy are the ones picking the android phones. ITs a matter of time, Android does not have the head start that apple has.. And i still have to explain to friends what android is, When i show them what it does they are amazed.. Sort of like when HD and Bluray first came out... You had to show it to them to xplain it ;)


I agree Angry birds will get hit hard from those employees. The smart Android users have all 3 versions for free loaded already :)

I think this was stupid move for a corporation to make. Allowing your employees to choose from what could amount to be 50 or so phones is ridiculous. When something goes wrong they are dealing with 3 to 5 OS's right now. Wish my company would do this... but i would still think its silly. The 3 OS are not created equal how does the company deal with this?
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T
I think that is going to be the biggest problem right there. With multiple OS's and multiple handsets available, IT departments are just going to get slammed when something happens. I know from fellow employees who are not on BlackBerry that there only means of accessing their corporate email is through a web-portal when using a mobile device. Security isn't an issue at our business (or at least managers don't seem to think so) but if I had to login to a web portal all the time to check my email it would drive me nuts.

I'm not a gamer, don't browse the web, listen to music, watch video, etc much on my phone. So when it comes to email (pushed), texting, calling, and BBM I think BlackBerry meets my needs just fine.
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W
The other trend that has happened recently is that many teenagers actually prefer a BB to an iPhone due to BBM which they use constantly. It has become somewhat of a "killer app" for smartphones, at least from a non-business perspective.
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S
I can't believe they didn't switch to Clorox Tablets! Nyuk nyuk nyuk...

Anyways, this situation is further proof that the days of traditional corporate IT departments are gone. With desktop PCs the IT department has traditionally held almost fascist power over platforms, apps, and gear. "You want Linux? Beat it, geek!" or "Mac OS X? Get outta here, artsy-fartsy!" while they are still struggling with rolling out Windows 7 long after it was released.
topherpaquette said:
IT departments are just going to get slammed when something happens.
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With mobile phone providers carrying the support workload the IT department doesn't have such a heavy burden, and IT no longer defines or dictates a standard set of OS/Apps/gear as long as the new mobile device works properly with corporate systems. Thus the opportunity arises for workers to actually have a choice. I'm all for it. :)
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W
And then again the move to cloud based computing or web apps could see a return to a centralized computing environment where the users have not much more than dumb terminals to use.

I also think that corporate systems are going to start to lock down a lot more in the future to prevent against cyberattacks since these are becoming more and more prevalent - see the article in the G&M a week or so about Bay Street legal firms under cyberattack from Chinese hackers.
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H
With mobile phone providers carrying the support workload the IT department doesn't have such a heavy burden, and IT no longer defines or dictates a standard set of OS/Apps/gear as long as the new mobile device works properly with corporate systems. Thus the opportunity arises for workers to actually have a choice. I'm all for it
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Agreed.

If users, who have a choice, start to find the iPhone or Android or W7 phone to be a pain in the butt then they will gravitate back to Blackberry.
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W
Who pays for the hardware in this model - employee or company?
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H
See post #1.
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W
I saw that but if an employee isn't happy with an iPhone and wants to switch back to a BB that gets very expensive for companies unless they can redeploy the unwanted iPhone.
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