Be afraid, be very afraid
Is Blackberry facing extinction? And why you shouldn't be so happy about thatcompany iPhone
My, how the mighty do fall.
Once upon a time, BlackBerry's wallet-sized corporate tracking device dominated the professional communications market. You couldn't find a suit on Main Street America without one in his pocket (or in her purse, ahem) or suctioned to his hand. It was the ultimate in always leaving your work switch flipped (mostly) on.
But the iRevolution changed everything. Gone were the praises for BlackBerry's long-touted innovation, and in swooped the complaints of technological limitations and sluggish execution. And slowly but surely, even the corporate drones hungered for a piece of the Apple pie.
So it really should come as no surprise that, of Verizon's BlackBerry faithful, 66 percent expect to find themselves clasping an iPhone come Verizon iPhone Launch Day this Thursday.
Let the naysayers cluck themselves deaf. When the largest cellular phone network starts carrying one of the most popular smartphones of all time, and the majority of BlackBerry users are jumping ship for it, we should all look up from our laptops and take notice.
How long until Big Law and Big Oil start handing them out with their employee orientation packets? Only time will tell. But if the Verizon BlackBerry exodus is any indication, the corporate world will be full of Appleheads before the Donald can growl, "You're fired!"
Everyone in corporate America wielding a iPhone! To technology enthusiasts (which don't really comprise corporate America, let's be honest), it sounds great, it really does.
Until you realize what this really means. Because it ain't broke, but this shift is about to fix it.
Think about it. Three a.m. Your boss in Tokyo doesn't want to simply speak about the merger deal you're working on. He wants to video chat. On that Skype app on your iPhone. Your company-provided (read: obligated-to-take-phone-calls-at-all-hours) phone. Remember that awesome iPhone you scored for free? Go to sleep with your hair done, pretty boy. Because Daddy Warbucks is calling.
Missed the training session because a meeting ran long? No bother. Your general manager's assistant filmed it on his iPhone, and is sending you the grainy two-hour-long event so you can brief your boss in an hour. We know you did the math. You'd better find a way to make it work, buster.
If you thought Wall Street and its minions were on all the time before, there is no off button for the grind when you put an iPhone into the commercial megalomaniac mix.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." We can safely assure you that this was before the iPhone hit the disciples of the Fortune 500 nation.