Dell dumping 25,000 BlackBerrys for Windows Phone 7 (Venue Pro)

This is nearly an unprecedented move and quite the boast for Microsoft but Dell just announced that it will be switching 25,000 of their employees from their RIM BlackBerrys to their own Venue Pro running Windows Phone 7. Eventually they'll also offer Android devices as well. No punches were pulled either as Dell CFO Brian Gladden told the Wall Street Journal:

Clearly in this decision we are competing with RIM, because we're kicking them out...

The change will begin next Wednesday and the move is expected to save the company 25% in communication costs over the long term. Not only are they doing this internally, but Dell is setting up a service in 2 weeks to help other companies transition from RIM to alternative OS providers as well. Presumably that would Windows Phone 7, since Microsoft's Exchange system is quite widely adopted, robust and cheaper than RIM.

This news is huge and could be the beginning of the decline of RIM in the business market.

Source: WSJ

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and wearable tech. He has reviewed laptops for over 10 years and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, Arm64 processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, performed polysomnographs in NYC, and was a motion-picture operator for 17 years.