[The Prophet]

Research In Motion (RIM) has had more bad news: Qantas, the Australian airline, is to replace 1,300 BlackBerry handsets used by its employees with iPhones, and says it will save "millions" by doing so.

BlackBerry maker RIM faces fresh blow as Qantas staff demand iPhones

Getting darn near impossible to defend BB's and the BES if in fact they are able to save millions by switching

The Prophet

[mseguin42]

I wonder about the "save millions" part.

We have a few users who convinced the company that they could try the iPhones.

My heavy users on BBs use about 150MB of data per month. This includes web-browsing for a couple of them.

My "good" iPhone user is consistently at 1.5GB of data per month. My other users who haven't met a link they didn't like are blowing past the 5GB mark easily.

Data is expensive in Canada and we are paying hundreds of dollars more for my iPhone users than my BBs.

Yes, Bell has a 6GB plan but my iPhone users also travel into the US and "need" tethering so I need to stick with a 1GB North American plan for now.

If we switched all of our BBs to iPhones, I could see my bills going up by $10k-$15k per month.

How do you "save millions"?

[fourstringfuror]

"Fresh blow?" I bet RIM sold more BB's in Asia today than this.

This is business. It's up and down.

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by mseguin42

I wonder about the "save millions" part.

We have a few users who convinced the company that they could try the iPhones.

My heavy users on BBs use about 150MB of data per month. This includes web-browsing for a couple of them.

My "good" iPhone user is consistently at 1.5GB of data per month. My other users who haven't met a link they didn't like are blowing past the 5GB mark easily.

Data is expensive in Canada and we are paying hundreds of dollars more for my iPhone users than my BBs.

Yes, Bell has a 6GB plan but my iPhone users also travel into the US and "need" tethering so I need to stick with a 1GB North American plan for now.

If we switched all of our BBs to iPhones, I could see my bills going up by $10k-$15k per month.

How do you "save millions"?

The millions are saved in server infrastructure and whatnot.

[jsconyers]

From the link in the article:

Qantas said the move to iPhone could save the company millions of dollars due to better carrier arrangements for mobile data from both Telstra and Optus, as well as simplified support infrastructure.

Read more: Qantas to replace BlackBerry smartphones with Apple iPhones

[knottyrope]

one BES can support 2000 BlackBerries but we dont know if they have multiple servers, HA, DR or what else. also they might have a huge help desk for just BES. EAS you can remove profile and setup again if it dont work. works most of the time

1 admin per 200 devices at 50k per admin is about 350k and 15 per month on data plans is about 20k. so maybe 400k savings over all, but what are they going to use for MDM now?

when travelling out of country our iphone users get higher bills because the use tons more data if not on wifi

I think the head line is a bit misleading.

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by knottyrope

one BES can support 2000 BlackBerries but we dont know if they have multiple servers, HA, DR or what else. also they might have a huge help desk for just BES. EAS you can remove profile and setup again if it dont work. works most of the time

1 admin per 200 devices at 50k per admin is about 350k and 15 per month on data plans is about 20k. so maybe 400k savings over all, but what are they going to use for MDM now?

when travelling out of country our iphone users get higher bills because the use tons more data if not on wifi

I think the head line is a bit misleading.

Many companies don't use any other MDM besides EAS...

[jsconyers]

@knotty, you also have to include the licensing fees as well as support contract costs.

[dc/dc]

Also, if this device replacement is a BYOD deal, then they won't have to pay for as many support personnel.

[knottyrope]

Support contracts are not 1500 per user and license for BES wont be that much either.

I still dont see the MILLIONS saved.

[mseguin42]

I see where you're all coming from but I guess I think differently.

I'm only starting to look at other options from BES to cover for the possibility of RIM failure. So, I'm not 100% sure of these comments.

I can't imagine not using an MDM solution to get the same (or almost) control BES gives. For most of my users that is block everything except phone, text, BBM and email. Yes, I'm mean that way.

And, I'm not sure BYOD would be less support as a good percentage of my users have difficulty changing their passwords when BES forces it. The thought of certain of my people trying to use Android or iOS sends me into fits.

[tsac]

All good points but the carriers love the IPhone because of the increase in use. they eliminated the unlimited data plans because they saw the direction the users were heading. At some point they will eliminate any remaining plans that do not have extra cost and make even more money. Sprint does continue with an UL plan but for how long?

As in a post above, users in my company who moved to Iphones from BB have skyrocketed in use to the point the company now is looking to restrict use to less than 5GB. The BB's continue to be a business tool and use shows employees basically use it for it's intended purpose.

Support cost may be a consideration but to what end.

IMHO

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by tsac

All good points but the carriers love the IPhone because of the increase in use. they eliminated the unlimited data plans because they saw the direction the users were heading. At some point they will eliminate any remaining plans that do not have extra cost and make even more money. Sprint does continue with an UL plan but for how long?

As in a post above, users in my company who moved to Iphones from BB have skyrocketed in use to the point the company now is looking to restrict use to less than 5GB. The BB's continue to be a business tool and use shows employees basically use it for it's intended purpose.

Support cost may be a consideration but to what end.

IMHO

The usage is kinda a moot point outside of the US and Canada. Most other countries in the world have never had unlimited plans for any devices, including BB or iPhones, so they've never worried about it. As a business iPhone user, I have used less than 1 GB a month even with some personal use or tethering before, so it can be done.