As more and more businesses are switching to Apple products, Jobs is trying to make the move on two of the biggest U.S banks to become iPhone supporters. Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. are considering whether to let employees use the Apple iPhone as an alternative to RIM’s Blackberry for corporate e-mail. The banks are currently testing software for the iPhone that is designed to make it secure enough for company messages. The tests are the latest sign that RIM may be losing its tight grip on the corporate smartphone market. Companies are experimenting with alternatives such as Apple’s iPhone or devices that use Google’s Android software. “People are delighted with their iPhones and Android phones and they want to use them for work,” said Roger Entner, head of telecom research at Nielsen Co. “The result is RIM now has real competition for corporate customers.”

RIM is already losing out on the battle, losing 15 percent in Nasdaq Stock Market trading this year before today, while Apple had climbed 51 percent. Apple led by Jobs, reported last month that 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies are deploying or testing the iPhone, including Procter & Gamble Co., General Electric Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. is exploring whether to let works use Androids or iPhones for corporate e-mail.

Currently Bank of America, which has about 284,000 employees and Citigroup, which has about 258,000 employees are deploying or testing the new smartphones out. The efforts are intended to widen the choice of devices employees can use, rather than replace the Blackberry. The trials at the two companies involve more than 1,000 employees, which typically takes four to six weeks, and will be followed by a pilot project before potentially wider implementation. Laura Hunter, a spokesman for Charlotte, North Carolina- based Bank of America, declined to comment on any specific trials, adding that “we continuously evaluate new and innovative technologies.”

Apple is taking steps to make its products more appealing to businesses and challenge the Blackberry, which won over Wall Street banks and corporations with is security and reliability. Apple is working to improve the iPhone’s security by strengthening encryption tools and adding the ability to set longer passcodes and integrating with server computers that can wipeout or lock an iPhone if it’s lost. The company even enlisted computer-services provide Unisys Corp. to help it sell more devices to corporate customers. While both RIM and Apple’s share of the global mobile-phone market rose last quarter from a year earlier as more consumers upgraded to smartphones, Apple moved into fourth position, knocking RIM into fifth, according to research firm IDC. The popularity of Apple’s latest model, the iPhone 4, helped the company sell more handsets than its Canadian rival.

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Source: BusinessWeek

Authors: _GadgetNews

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