Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) is the latest enterprise to serve a big blow to BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) and its CEO John Chen. Over the past few years, The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD), Dell Inc and Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) have switched away from BlackBerry. The U.S. automaker announced that it would deploy iPhones for corporate use to employees around the world. That’s a win for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which is trying to attract more enterprise customers.
Ford plans to switch the entire workforce to the iPhone
Ford said it would replace BlackBerry devices with iPhones for about 3,300 employees by the end of 2014. Another 6,000 workers will receive iPhones over the next two years. The Dearborn-based company is also hiring a mobile technology analyst to “oversee the global deployment of corporate iPhones.” Eventually, Ford aims to switch the entire workforce to the iPhone. The automaker has more than 181,000 employees worldwide.
Apple is trying to grab a bigger slice of the corporate smartphone and tablet markets. earlier this month, the Cupertino-based company joined forces with International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) to develop business software for iPhones and iPads. The deal will help Apple sell more devices to corporate users. Ford spokeswoman Sara Tatchio said that the iPhone meets the overall needs of employees, business as well as personal.
Ford will still use BlackBerry’s QNX
Though Ford is moving away from BlackBerry smartphones, it will still use the Canadian company’s QNX in its next-gen Sync in-car technology system. There have been reports that Ford has replaced Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s system with QNX in February. BlackBerry CEO John Chen has sought to turn around the ailing company by focusing on enterprise customers.
On Tuesday, BlackBerry announced that it’s buying German firm Secusmart, which provides data and voice encryption, and anti-eavesdropping services to enterprises, telecom operators and governments.
Ford shares fell 0.52% to $17.35 at 1:06 PM EDT on Wednesday.
