BOA and Citi Set To Leave Blackberry

Collectively Bank of America and Citi have over 500,000 employees and they’re currently testing to see if Android and iPhone can meet the security standards that the banks require. Now this doesn’t mean that they are selling all of the Blackberry’s on eBay, but they will allow their employees to choose between devices. Currently there are 1,000 people testing Blackberry alternatives now and they expect the trials to last between 4-6 weeks. It’s hard to tell but it seems as though there is serious consideration for the iPhone and some interest in Android. In any event, this is bad news for RIM who is quickly losing its dominance on corporations and also good news for Microsoft who seems to continue to keep support for Exchange.

In the end, the iPhone has a lot more security features than Android (with features like sandboxing and a restricted market) but this is inherent in the products themselves. Whether Android is secure enough (with it’s open OS) remains to be seen, but the end result for RIM is the same nonetheless. The justification for an additional BES server is quickly fading.