Has Dell fell out with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion? Maybe, maybe not but Dell apparently wants their 25 thousand employees to switch from using BlackBerry smartphone to using Windows Phone 7 and will give them a free Dell Venue Pro to do so.
According to an article over on Gizmodo by Kat Hannaford and by way of the WSJ, not only will Dell give employees a Dell Venue Pro but will also offer a new service to clients for helping in the switch from BlackBerry to Windows Phone 7.
Brian Gladden, the CFO for Dell says, “clearly in this decision we are competing with RIM, because we’re kicking them out.” Switching from BlackBerry will save Dell 25 per cent of phone costs (as they won’t have to pay the monthly BlackBerry fees), and they’re even looking to recoup some of the costs by “creating a site on eBay where we can actually sell these BlackBerry devices.”
The offer from Dell can’t be too pleasing to Research in Motion but offering their business clients a new service as well as getting their 25,000 employees to switch from BlackBerry to the Dell Venue Pro will probably be good for the WP7 platform.
Gladden also said, “It’s not clear to [RIM] the scope of what we’re doing.” I don’t know those I’m fairly sure RIM isn’t that stupid to realise Dell is pushing Windows Phone 7 against BlackBerry.