[Edward Kirk]

Worldwide bank HSBC's employees have long used BlackBerries as the handset of choice, but rumor has it that they are considering replacing all 200,000 of them with iPhones. Their Australia CIO Brenton Hush says the company has been reviewing the new iPhone for a while, and it looks like they like what they've seen so far.

"We are actually reviewing iPhones from a HSBC Group perspective ... and when I say that, I mean globally," said the CIO.

Internationally, the company has about 300,000 staff. If they do decide to go ahead with the switch, it will mean Apple will have their biggest order for iPhones yet, as well as a major blow to BlackBerry maker RIM.

"A decision on a piece of hardware like that would potentially be deployed, conservatively, to 200,000 people," said Hush. "You know, it's a big decision, especially when you have an existing fleet out there."

"But it's definitely something we are considering from a HSBC Group perspective," he said. "We always explore the potential application of new technologies and this is no different."

While HSBC's Australian presence is much smaller than the other major Australian banks in the country, their global operations collectively have a US$6 billion annual technology budget and a team of 30,000 IT professionals supporting 300,000 employees.

While he doesn't own one himself, Hush added, "I have obviously had hands on experience with them."

[via ZDNet]

[warlock]

I think it'd be a great move... with all the enterprise features and everything. Sounds like a good idea to me...

[madscientest]

Originally Posted by warlock

I think it'd be a great move... with all the enterprise features and everything. Sounds like a good idea to me...

have you had the pleasure of doing business with this bank? their technology is stuck in the 90's.

You cant even pay a bill over the phone. For my first payment to this bank I sent them a box of pennies to count. They make it difficult for me, ill make it difficult for them. they make it easy for me, ill make it easy for them.

their website has direction for microsoft internet explorer for MAC. which is not even supported anymore. then if you bookmark a page from them you always get an error when you try to access that from a browers. its one of those your browser is not supported, but i was just logged in.

In my opinion they need to do a lot more than just get a new phone!!!

developers SUCK!!!