Australia’s Qantas Airways, is the latest company to drop Research in Motion Ltd’s Blackberry after employees voted in favor of Apple’s iPhone in a survey.<\/p>\n
RIM virtually invented mobile e-mail, making it the phone of choice for companies when it rolled out its first BlackBerry devices more than a decade ago. But its market share has evaporated as consumers flock to iPhones and other devices based on Google Inc’s Android system.<\/p>\n
Qantas said it was replacing 1,300 company-issued Blackberrys with iPhones and the savings at the end of the program would be about A$1.4 million ($1.43 million). IBM was also reported to be dropping RIM for iPhones for 500 employees in Australia.<\/p>\n
“Transition from the Blackberry to the iPhone is part of Qantas’ broader mobility strategy and once complete will result in significant cost savings,” the airline said.<\/p>\n
“Savings will come from simplifying the infrastructure supporting the devices, from the devices themselves and from the data agreements reached with our providers.”<\/p>\n
RIM last month posted its first operating loss in eight years and it was much deeper than expected. The company also said it was cutting 5,000 jobs, almost a third of its workforce, as it struggles to survive.<\/p>\n
Last week RIM said Ray Gillenwater, the head of its Australian and New Zealand operations, had stepped down just months after being promoted to the job, joining a list of senior executives leaving the company.<\/p>\n
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