Telecom Lead Asia: Australia’s Qantas Airways has
decided to drop Research in Motion’s Blackberry and select Apple’s iPhone.
The decision to drop BlackBerry smartphones follows
employees voted in favor of Apple’s iPhone in a survey.
Recently, technology major IBM in Australia said it would
replace Blackberry with iPhone.
Qantas will replace 1,300 company-issued Blackberrys with iPhones
and the savings at the end of the program would be about $1.43 million. IBM was
also reported to be dropping RIM for iPhones for 500 employees in Australia,
according to a Reuters report.
Transition from the Blackberry to the iPhone is part of Qantas’ broader mobility strategy
and once complete will result in significant cost savings.
Savings will come from simplifying the infrastructure
supporting the devices, from the devices themselves and from the data
agreements reached with our providers.
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.
RIM has posted 43 percent decline in revenues at $2.8
billion in Q1 FY13, as compared with $4.9 billion a year earlier. Net loss for
the quarter was $518 million, as compared with net loss of $125 million in Q4
FY12 and net income of $695 million a year earlier.
RIM to slash 5,000 jobs, delays BlackBerry 10
RIM has already delayed the launch of new smartphones and
BlackBerry 10 OS.
In order to recover losses, RIM is also slashing 5,000 jobs
across its global operations before the end of the year. The company revealed
that its business is crumbling faster than thought.
The company recently unveiled its prototype device running
on BlackBerry 10 OS, which was expected later this year. The company’s
CEO Thorsten Heins said that BlackBerry 10 OS will be delayed even
longer, to the first quarter of next year.
