News · 5 Nov 2010 · MTW Editorial Team
Things are going to get heated in the smartphone business sector this fall. Dell is apparently planning to move its 25,000 employees from BlackBerrys to Dell Venue Pro Windows Phone 7 handsets in the near future:
“Clearly in this decision we are competing with RIM, because we’re kicking them out,” the computer maker’s chief financial officer, Brian Gladden, said in an interview.
Dell is going to offer its employees the choice to switch to the Venue Pro or an other Dell Android phone (probably the Del Venue aka Dell Thunder once it’s made official later this year).
Mr. Gladden said his company is working closely with Microsoft and that both parties recognize the opportunity for the software in the business market.
Paul Bryan, Microsoft’s senior director for product management for Windows Phone 7, said the business market is evolving as more employees seek to use their personal phones at work. The software company thinks it can win business there, but is focusing on making sure its product appeals to consumers, he said.
“We want our phones to be appealing to individuals, and people have needs that span personal and work,” he said.
This also means that Dell is moving from RIM’s BES to Microsoft’s Exchange to handle all the back-end infrastructure.
Update: Also note that all these phones will be running on T-Mobile’s Network:
source: WSJ
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