Banking Firm HSBC Considering iPhone? More iPhone Sales Estimates

[markm49uk]

Not surprised

Any company that truely values mobile capability should be looking at the iPhone seriously - I know I am for my organisation (not the size of HSBC but still with 30-40 Blackberry users with BES server etc).

We recently managed to snaffle a couple of 16Gb 3G iPhones and passed them to a couple of my directors - the response has been amazing to say the least - easy to use, great email and calendar (using Exchange push) , usable screen for attachments including Excel, Word and PDF documents and a superb browser for on the road access to internal intranets and the web.

But not only that the ability to have this great connectivity tool and also have a great phone, with all their personel music on together with photos as well, means it's a well rounded device that delivers on both fronts.

We have had Blackberry for years now and I have never had a response like this - the Blackberry is great for basic emailing but other than that it has not developed in the last 2-3 years. The OS is clunky and slow, the user interface is poor and the BES server strikes fear into the heart of my network support team.

Apple do have a way to go on some of the points raised earlier in the article re battery life and remote administration/lock down but in my eyes I can't see my organisation buying another Blackberry at this point.

 

[btcutter]

I disagree. My Blackberry is super user friendly. And the iPhone will not become standard any time soon. Blackberrys are just too good for email. The iPhone can't get it shizz straight, and the Blackberry has been tried and true for years

Do people need email INSTANTANEOUSLY? if so, TEXT or call....what's so hard about that?

 

[sushi]

someone should tell HSBC that the e-mail app is still unreliable.

Huh? What do you mean?

I disagree. My Blackberry is super user friendly. And the iPhone will not become standard any time soon. Blackberrys are just too good for email. The iPhone can't get it shizz straight, and the Blackberry has been tried and true for years

I have plenty of friends who work for the military/government that wish they could throw their BBs away. Far away.

If a few more big businesses (and HSBC is big) sign up - it'll be interesting to see others possible change position, re-review, or think about looking into it

Agree.

That isn't my experience. I will never touch a Blackberry again.

I think many, if given the choice, would dump their BB.

If HSBC uses the iPhone with their own proprietary software it would be an excellent move…

As an HSBC customer, I look forward to an HSBC client that runs on the iPhone/Touch. Manage my account and pay my bills from where ever I am.

Sweet.

Any company that truely values mobile capability should be looking at the iPhone seriously - I know I am for my organisation (not the size of HSBC but still with 30-40 Blackberry users with BES server etc).
<snip>

Well said.

 

[hexonxonx]

Excellent news! I have several credit cards from them and it's good to know that I'm helping fund those iPhones for their employees!

 

[Xavier]

This could be huge for Apple. Will be interesting to find out how this turns out.

 

[babyj]

Is the battery life on the iPhone really that bad?

I have to charge mine everyday but that's because I'm playing games on it, listening to music, watching a video, surfing, having my email sync every 15 minutes and other stuff - plus its got a big screen (compared to other phones).

Its more that I'm doing more with it than the battery life being poor.

 

[David G.]

Whie Apple...


Edit: Good for you Arn.

 

[babyj]

On the subject of how big HSBC are, they're actually the biggest bank in the world (according to The Economist at the end of 2007). They're also one of the more progressive banks, especially when it comes to modernising and moving forwards. They also make it pretty easy to open an account with them anywhere in the world that they operate (which is a lot of countries).

It wouldn't surprise me at all if they made the switch, but its likely to take them a number of months making a decision either way and then even longer actually making the switch. Which together could easily take it to the release of the 3rd Gen iPhone, by which time I'm sure Apple will have addressed all the issues that big corporations have with it.

 

[able-x]

I wonder how many posting about how they should switch actually work in IT Departments?

I hope HSBC bought lots of extra storage on the servers, and are ready to support a gillion itunes installs. Cause now they'll be supporting not just phones, but everyone's music collections, and they'll be storing them because that music WILL inevitability end up on the servers. Also, itunes doesn't allow updates without being an admin on the machine, so it takes yet more admin intervention to maintain.


Oh, and be ready when the RIAA or whatever Australian/European version of it comes knocking for all the pirated music on the corporate servers.

 

[fastbite]

Here we go! Cool -- I need AAPL to go up above 180 asap!!!!

 

[Zoboomafoo]

I have plenty of friends who work for the military/government that wish they could throw their BBs away. Far away.

Of all the ways the military could dispose of something, you think they'd pick "throwing it out?"

I feel like they might be more inclined to strap them to a claymore. Or at least target practice

 

[Diode]

Do people need email INSTANTANEOUSLY? if so, TEXT or call....what's so hard about that?

Heh try telling that to people on the street. They live and die by their email.

 

[netdog]

Just hope Apple doesn't extend them credit.

 

[twoodcc]

well this would be great for Apple and the iPhone. i hope that they switch

 

[kdarling]

Great. Thousands of business types driving around trying to read and answer their mail while having to look at the phone and sometimes hold it with two hands.

I tell ya what's needed... an accelerometer app that prevents texting/ reading mails while in a moving vehicle.

 

[kolax]

Do people need email INSTANTANEOUSLY? if so, TEXT or call....what's so hard about that?

If you worked in a large firm and needed to tell 100 employees something, Push email is the best, quickest and cheapest way.

100 text messages - restricted to phones only. And text messages aren't always instant. Email isn't. Plus text messages cost money to send, email doesn't (aside from ISP fees). And calling 100 employees individually?!

 

[The Tall One]

af

Dammit, my company gave me a blackberry.

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)

Hope this doesn't mean we'll be having another iPhone shortage here in the US because of HSBC.

Me too. I do, however, forsee Apple spending production on the large order and making the individual consumer wait. Take a look at the powermac G5 from a few years ago. People waited 6+ months to get their computer partly due to the fact that Apple elected to fill Va Tech's order first. I do like Apple as a whole but sometimes I feel that they could treat their customers with a little more respect.

 

[denm316]

My personal phone is an iPhone and I have a BB for work. The BB is a great phone all around for business, its been rock solid for me. I am on the BB all day and it only needs to be charged every couple days where as my iPhone is a different story. I would think it is a joke to give out company iPhones, its like asking people to be less productive.

One other great thing with the BB is the tethering option. So when I need to use my laptop, I can just plug my phone in or use Bluetooth.

 

[bytethese]

Laughing. I was thinking the same thing. Monkey Ball for everyone.

I mean, it's got great uses:

1. Watch training/company/tutorial/etc videos on the iPhone.
2. Listen to company Podcasts
3. Email
4. Custom Apps for your company

The downsides are:
1. Watching movies
2. Playing games
3. Browsing the internet (with 3G not so bad to browse blocked or sites you want no one in networking snooping on)

I think overall it would help in the workplace but a few "bad apples" (ha, nice pun right?) might see a serious drop in productivity.

 

[huntercr]

HSBC is indeed a very large corporation.

To that end, I was wondering why MacRumors felt they needed to put quotes around the word "giant" in the article? It's kind of rude given the context.

Just because a bank is relatively unknown in the USA doesn't mean it isn't one of the largest most important banks on the planet you know.

IMNA Teacher, but seems to me that's correct English... They are using a metaphor ( that is a noun ) as an adjective. The quotes add proper emphasis.

Consider: Industry tool, Walt Mossberg.
Versus: Industry "tool", Walt Mossberg.

 

[alphaod]

someone should tell HSBC that the e-mail app is still unreliable.

Well if this becomes a possibility, maybe Apple will increase their network capacity a lot more and hopefully achieve 99.99% uptime!

If you worked in a large firm and needed to tell 100 employees something, Push email is the best, quickest and cheapest way.

100 text messages - restricted to phones only. And text messages aren't always instant. Email isn't. Plus text messages cost money to send, email doesn't (aside from ISP fees). And calling 100 employees individually?!

Imagine calling a few thousand employees Or in HSBC's case 300,000 of them.

 

[Queso]

Damn. That means we'll have to find a nickname for the iPhone that's as good as Crackberry

iPium? iPhetamine? Someone help me out here...

 

[lazyrighteye]

Weird.
It almost sounds like HSBC is oblivious to the instability that plagues MobileMe.

Regardless, iPhone 3G can still be pretty difficult to find in the States. Can't imagine this "development" adding much in the way of relief for U.S. supply/demand.

But if true, this is great news for Apple. For all the obvious (and maybe not so obvious) reasons. Hopefully they can ramp up production to meet those numbers/demand. In the same breath, increasing the rate of production is directly proportionate to device flaws. Either way...

If untrue, it's still good PR.

I need caffeine...

 

[Marky_Mark]

I highly doubt HSBC will move forward with this for several reasons. However, this could be good because maybe HSBC will leverage their buying power to get Apple to:

-Properly implement a remote wipe - the one they have now doesn't work too well. The one on the Blackberry's is SOLID and completely renders the device useless.

-Properly lock down all aspects of the phone:
-disable the app store
-only allow a specific list of apps to run on the phone
-filter web traffic so employees can only visit certain web sites on their phone

-Add a snooze button to calendar events

-Add sync with your to-do task list in Outlook!!!!

-Solve the 3G reception issues

-Improve battery life to that of a Blackberry, or make an iPhone with a removable battery. Most blackberry users are mobile, and can go a day or two without charging their phone.

Seriously, Blackberries are tried and true in the corporate world. The iPhone is awesome, but Apple needs to make a corporate version of the iPhone which competes and functions directly like the technology they are trying to replace, otherwise most corporations will view the iPhone as another toy to distract workers from getting their jobs done.

Someone a bit higher up asked if anyone worked for an IT department. I do. I have one word for you all: robustness. When it's someone's own money, they treat the device well and take care of it and pay attention to potential risks. When it's an allocated corporate device, noticably less care is taken because they can just get a new one if their's one breaks.

When I drop my employer's Blackberry Curve it bounces. I know because I have and it does. If it does break, I'll get a hotswap from central IS and no questions asked. Now, if I dropped my iPhone 3G, the screen would almost certainly crack, I'd cry a little bit, and then I'd have to pony up my own money for a new one. So I'm going to take a lot more care with my iPhone than my Blackberry. Can you imagine what the breakage rate will be on corporate iPhones? it'll be horrendous, they're simply not built for that environment. A simple calculation of replacement unit volumes will nix any migration business case.