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

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

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
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, 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 for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

7 Comments
  • With Dell and MSFT working closely for their business clients only good things can come about of this!
  • Sounds like Dell is making a huge push in the right direction. Spread this love across all carriers, and more customers are sure to make the transition! RIM better hold tight to their enterprise customers, Wp7 is here!!
  • It's not that 'huge' a news story. It's not all that uncommon for companies to plan capital expenditures for stuff like switching to different email systems.
  • I disagree. Dumping 25,000 phones and changing your infrastructure is a big undertaking. It's also very public now, putting a bad light on RIM who is already suffering from a fading product line and lack of consumer interest. RIM is turning into Palm who rode out their Treo line forever. On top of that, not only is Dell switching but they're turning into a business to get other companies to switch. There's playing defense and then playing offense, Dell is doing the latter here. I believe RIM will be watching this closely.
  • This is so spot on, and if it wasn't for HP buying Palm MS would've probably had HP doing the same in this case as well. Both HP and Dell are turning into full end-to-end business hardware and services shops. They'll sell you the servers, clients, phones , and software your enterprise will need, and set it all up for you. It makes sense that Dell will push it's own mobile devices in this regard and it's a good win for MS in the process.
  • You mean to tell me that Dell uses Blackberrys until l know WTF don't they have their own devices for years
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