At internet service provider iiNet, only executives and some senior managements have smartphones hooked up to the corporate network, according to the organisation's chief technology officer Greg Bader.
Bader says that the execs mostly have BlackBerrys, but that there are a few iPhones fostered by the managing director Michael Malone's fondness for Apple. "Most have BlackBerry because they've been using them for a number of years," Bader says. "We don't really worry about all the gimmicking."
Since smartphones are a productivity tool, people were likely to choose a device they were familiar with, he says. "At the moment it's iPhones and BlackBerrys."
Bader personally is an exception, having leant on the IT department to let him "trial" a HTC Touch. "I'm a geek so I like gadgets," he says. "The iPhone's too common."
Yet as Jetstar chief information officer Stephen Tame tells ZDNet.com.au, the more individual a company allows its employees to be in a device sense, the more patching is necessary for the IT department, and is the reason why firms will often choose to keep to their standard fleet, which is usually the BlackBerry. However, Tame refuses to consider BlackBerry because its proprietary back-end rules out having other devices connecting to the same hardware. It doesn't make sense to have two systems running, he believes.
Jetstar's smartphones are 80 per cent Nokia E71s and 20 per cent iPhones, according to Tame. His personal choice is the Nokia E71, which he calls "bulletproof" and is his personal device, not just his workhorse. Jetstar's CFO and the head of airports also use the Nokia, but the commercial directors and the CEO have opted for the iPhone, Tame says.
The organisation had previously been running the Windows Mobile-based iMate, but had encountered issues with reliability, Tame says. There are still some of the devices floating around, which have been passed on by executives to middle management, but there are no significant pockets of any other phone, he says, despite the fact that he has tried to keep device choice open as long as it is priced fairly and is easy to operate.
Telecommunications carrier PacNet is the exception to the iPhone rule, according to CEO Bill Barney, who says that its corporate fleet is purely BlackBerry, although people do carry around other devices for personal use. The company has used HTC for three years, but recently switched, Barney says. Roaming is easier using the BlackBerry when compared to the HTC device, but the HTC devices have synchronisation problems and data transmission issues.
Barney confesses himself to be a fully converted BlackBerry fan since the switch from HTC. None of the executives mention the Omnia and none have seen any Androids appearing in the organisation as work phones, despite the original furore around the device.
This could change, with Vodafone and 3 about to release the next-generation Android phone from HTC, the Magic, adding to Optus' release of the first-generation HTC Dream.
Yet Gartner research director Robin Simpson doesn't think so. The analyst believes Android will suffer the same problems that Windows Mobile did. Windows Mobile, Gartner believes, relies on individual device manufacturers to make the package work and be attractive, which often they fail to do. Instead they achieve an effect that is "a little bit old-fashioned", to Simpson's mind. The Android devices Simpson has seen so far also haven't been particularly sexy, he says.
I'm a geek so I like gadgets. The iPhone's too common
iiNet CTO Greg Bader
Another problem is that manufacturers try to add features to make a phone based on a common operating system different, which makes it a nightmare for applications developers and enterprise IT teams who don't want to have to think about patching many different versions of the same thing. Novosel doesn't think Android will take off just yet, but for different reasons. Android is still on first generation devices, Novosel says. When the next generations come around, people will start to be more interested, he believes.
As for device manufacturers in general, Gartner's Simpson believes the smaller ones will really struggle over the next few years, while larger ones like Nokia have to make sure it is easy to do business tasks such as synchronise email and then style their devices like designers, not engineers.
Novosel points out Nokia's attempts to make it possible for a lot more of its phones to easily set up mail. This could aid the brand in the business market, but he believes it is too early to call. He also believes that there will definitely be room for other smartphone manufacturers to grow in the market.
Novosel believes that the BlackBerry will continue to do "extremely well" as the company is devoting a lot of attention to research and development. Gartner's Simpson agrees that it will carry on with its performance, saying that harder economic times will bring people to buy brands they trust, such as the BlackBerry.
It seems the corporate world's affair with the BlackBerry is not quite at an end.
What smartphone do you prefer? Take our poll or post your comments below this article. Click to the next page to see our reviews round-up of the smartphone market.
Interesting & helpful article, but the key thing you overlook is the ongoing price!
With Telstra a Blackberry is $59/month locked in to one user for a 2yr contract!
A Treo iPhone etc is $10/month (150MB plan) that can be cancelled anytime.
The other thing is that overseas roaming is a bit better with a Blackberry. Sometimes Treos etc need to be manually selected onto a particular network.
Keyboard thing is a preference, but I think emails are significantly slower without one.
I am an IT Manager with about 30+ Blackberries, 80+ HTCs & Treos, a couple of iPhones in our fleet..