iPhone set to steal BlackBerry's business crown

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Apple may be able to steal RIM’s crown in the corporate space, but only if it’s willing to change tack a little.

While many business users are carrying BlackBerry devices today, that could soon change so it’s an Apple iPhone in their hand instead, according to Forrester Research’s chairman and chief executive George F. Colony.

“If you're the typical CEO, you are carrying a Blackberry. But not for long. Once the iPhone is able, in a corporate setting, to replicate all aspects of Outlook (email, calendar, notes, and tasks) with high security, the iPhone floodgates will open and you will have a new device,” he wrote in his blog.

This change will come about thanks to the iPhone’s “faster, more intuitive” user interface, a wider – and fast growing – applications portfolio, according to Colony. He also pointed to networks potentially being opened up beyond one carrier exclusivity in Europe and the US.

However, the conquering won’t come without some pain as Colony suggested that Apple has been, in the main, historically very hostile to the corporate space.

“Every time the company tries to leave the consumer and go enterprise, it goes from being cool to being incompetent,” he added, before suggesting that Apple may require a little bit of a makeover to ensure its success among chief executives and chief information officers (CIOs).

Colony concluded: “Apple may have to bend its corporate culture to grab the enterprise iPhone business - the opportunity of moving iPhones into large companies will be too big and too lucrative to ignore....If Apple consents to change its strategy, an iPhone will be coming your way.”

Last month, US analyst house Crowd Science published a report that suggested four our of 10 BlackBerry and other smartphone users would consider buying an iPhone as their next mobile purchase.

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