Halliburton To Dump Blackberry For iOS 188
grub writes "Halliburton has decided to drop Research In Motion's Blackberry platform in favor of Apple's iOS for its workforce. 'An internal newsletter outlined the plan for the nearly 70,000 employees who work for Halliburton in more than 70 countries. "Over the next year, we will begin expanding the use of our mobile technology by transitioning from the BlackBerry (RIM) platform that we currently use to smartphone technology via the iPhone."'"
Seems fitting (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Seems fitting (Score:5, Insightful)
Blackberry had some really large problems in the past few years. Network outages, lack of interests in developing 3rd party apps. Most likely a lot of employees wanted iOS devices more then ones who liked their blackberry. So they made an IT decision to switch... No big deal.
If Apple messes up or something that is far superior pops up then you will see the market switch again.
This isn't some Evil attracted to Evil, liberal hippy crap. To big companies often thing that are ethically wrong... Yes. Are all their decisions based on Evil... No.
Sometimes an IT Decision is just that.
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A company like Halliburton, is a big company. Most of you the only reason to hate it was because of its connection with a former Vice President who was a War Hawk Republican. Like all Large companies they do a lot of things. And the IT decision to move from Blackberry to iOS, probably isn't part of some evil plot. Just probably more innocently trying to give customers a better tool for their job.
Blackberry had some really large problems in the past few years. Network outages, lack of interests in developing 3rd party apps. Most likely a lot of employees wanted iOS devices more then ones who liked their blackberry. So they made an IT decision to switch... No big deal.
If Apple messes up or something that is far superior pops up then you will see the market switch again.
This isn't some Evil attracted to Evil, liberal hippy crap. To big companies often thing that are ethically wrong... Yes. Are all their decisions based on Evil... No.
Sometimes an IT Decision is just that.
No, I am pretty sure it was because they were shameless war profiteers who won no-bid contracts and earned billions in profits while ONLY BY COINCIDENCE were they hugely invested in and advised by several officials in the white house... And then they blew up an oil well in the gulf that shit all over the coastline of 5 states. All liberal hippy crap, no doubt.
Re:Seems fitting (Score:5, Insightful)
As a fairly liberal hippy type person, I have to say he's still pretty much right. You can't just say "Halliburton has done evil things, therefore all things done by Halliburton are evil". I disagree with a lot of things about the company, and I take anything they say with a grain of salt, but I seriously doubt they have "Chief Evil Officer" who's job it is to double check all corporate actions and make sure they meet the necessary standard of evil. Most likely enough people complained about Blackberry that IT decided to switch platforms. It's news because it shows that RIM is seriously hemorrhaging big customers. If they can't hold onto the Halliburtons, they're in even worse shape than a lot of people thought. I believe it was just a week or so ago that I was responding to a post about how "regulate" industries were never going to move to IPhone just because some dirty users wanted to... Well, yeah...
Re:Seems fitting (Score:5, Insightful)
Moreover, why is Halliburton moving away from Blackberry to iOS supposed to raise any eyebrows? RIM is in a death spiral. This article could have been written about thousands of other companies.
(Yes, I know that this is /. so there's necessarily evil afoot when android isn't chosen, but... )
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It's only statistically significant as another anecdotal sign that RIM needs to change its tune. Haliburton gouged the people of the US, moved their assets base offshore, and generally fucked the USA. During the Mideast wars, they repeatedly gouged, profiteered, and were poster boys and girls for how to bone your country.
So now they're changing to iOS. Who.Fucking. Cares.
Re:Seems fitting (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, that's why we should hate them. It couldn't also be it's support and coverup of a gang rape committed by employees, or it's opposition to anti-human trafficing among other things.
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opposition to anti-human trafficing among other things.
You know, just because someone is an anti-human, that doesn't mean they don't deserve to live free of the indignities of being kidnapped, abused, and sold like baseball cards...
(Sorry, but with the phrasing, I couldn't resist)
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Whilst I don't disagree that you're probably right, this is just an IT decision, let's please not trivialise how evil Halliburton actually is down to a mere connection to a politician people may or may not like.
They were running empty convoys through Iraq just so they could charge the government for more money, despite the fact US troops and civilians died on such convoys.
They're also still to this day trying to exploit the anti-BP rhetoric surrounding the deepwater horizon incident to shirk off their porti
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Possibly, but keep in mind that it'll probably be a rolling upgrade, meaning they'll do it as phones need replacing, so it may well cost $70million to convert, but if it was going to cost $65million to continue dealing with RIM anyway as handsets are upgraded, software licenses renewed etc. then they may have deemed the difference is worth it. For what it's worth I think $1k per person is probably a gross overestimate, particularly with the type of bulk discount a large corporation like this will get. Just
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Physical keyboard? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Physical keyboard? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not saying that the iPhone isn't a good phone, but it has no physical keyboard. Many employees use their phone for answering email; to me the iPhone seems like it would really inconvenient for use in this manner. Does anybody else use an iPhone as their primary work device?
Brevity of reply = feature not bug
Re:Physical keyboard? (Score:5, Informative)
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I find it harder to type on touchscreen keyboards then on physical phone keyboards when I'm shitfaced.
But the touchscreen is easier to clean the puke off of.
Re:Physical keyboard? (Score:4, Funny)
I find it harder to type on touchscreen keyboards then on physical phone keyboards when I'm shitfaced.
You reply to work emails when drunk? I know it might make dealing with the utter rubbish out of Marketing easier, but even so it's probably unwise...
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Touchscreens are much harder to type on whilst driving a car, which may or may not be a feature...
Re:Physical keyboard? (Score:5, Insightful)
Touchscreens are much harder to type on whilst driving a car
Conveniently, this usability issue is addressed by Darwin.
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If they only Darwin'ed themselves by hitting trees, that's one thing.
Unfortunately, Darwin doesn't discriminate between the idiot texting while driving on an undivided highway, and the family of four that he/she hits when he crosses the center line.
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I knocked a beer over on my Treo once. A couple of buttons quit working; the keyboard needed replacement. I've managed to avoid knocking beers over on my iPhones, but if I had done so, at least it'd just need to be wiped off.
Re:Physical keyboard? (Score:4, Interesting)
Add me to the pile of "I find virtual keyboards easier than the little ones on a Blackberry" people. I was using a coworkers BB a few days ago to text with another coworker who's number I didn't have. I wanted to throw the thing against a wall. It was awful to type on that tiny little chiclet keyboard, I am at least twice as fast on my iPhone or friends Android devices with virtual keyboards. It's all about what you're used too.
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Add me to the list of "both those phones suck" people who prefer a full sized qwerty keyboard on their phone.
The Epic 4g has a 50 key slide out physical keyboard more than 4 inches wide.
Re:Physical keyboard? (Score:4, Funny)
"Does anybody else use an iPhone as their primary work device?"
Only while driving.
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He is working on it.
Re:Physical keyboard? (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, don't say that. With autocorrect, an on-screen touch keyboard is just as fast and arrogant as a maniacal keyboard.
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Re:Physical keyboard? (Score:4, Funny)
>arrogant
Can we assume that's from your iPhone auto correct?
Choose
Re:Physical keyboard? (Score:4, Insightful)
I use it all the time, and don't really have issues writing emails on it.. With any compact device it takes practice. I personally have a harder time on those mini physical keyboards than on the virtual iPhone keyboard.
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All I can say is, "Thank Jebus."
Blackberry replies (actually any smartphone replies) are usually useless and poorly thought out. The useful ones are stuff like, "We'll talk tomorrow at 3," which can still be hacked out on a virtual keyboard.
That said, I can understand the desire for an actual keyboard, but then I don't work for Halliburton.
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Re:Physical keyboard? (Score:5, Funny)
typing this on i touchscreen keyboard
Comedy gold!
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Re:Physical keyboard? (Score:4, Funny)
LOL, a have Java dictionary?
One pro tip: never type curse words into your phone. It will learn the curse words and then auto-correct at the worst possible times.
SMS is the single most used "app" (Score:2)
With email second.
Web third.
and apps are a fairly distant fourth.
No keyboard does indeed suck.
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TXTing is so 00's It was useful when people only had regular cellphones. Now that most of the people I need to message are on smart phones of one kind or another, I prefer email, which I get on any computer I use (home, work) as well as my phone. I don't want to be tethered to my phone at all times.
I don't even pay for a txt plan any longer.
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I type less each day.
Doesn't typing the same word every day get a little boring?
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Think the "I can't write unless I have a hardware keyboard" trope died once people actually bothered to learn to type on touchscreen keyboards. I know I can type faster on an iPhone (or Galaxy Nexus) than I can on the multiple recent BlackBerrys I've used. Not having to use awkward function key combos and using autocorrection to your advantage can go a long way.
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Depends on the person. As a large guy, I find onscreen keyboards horribly inconvenient, especially when switching between case or letters/numbers/symbols (my passwords kill me on onscreen keyboards). My girlfriend is the opposite, after a half hour she could type nearly as fast as on a physical keyboard and didn't mind it at all. Of course, I'm usually much more into grammar and capitalization than most people on mobile device. From the companies I've supported using iPhones for their mobile salesforce,
Re:Physical keyboard? (Score:5, Informative)
Part of the problem, I think, is that the keyboards include predictive word choosing, and people don't really normally look at the spelling of a word when they are reading. They just see a word that starts and ends with the right letters and is roughly the same size.
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Takes about a week. Your large finger parent is full of it btw. The iPhone keyboard is far superior for those of us with large fingers. I had about 5 years on the blackberry and within a week I typed faster and more accurately with the virtual keyboard.
People try it once and mumble about change and go back into their hole.
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I've been typing on a 4" android keyboard for just over a year now, and I still can't crank out a paragraph nearly as fast as I could on my blackberry. I tried the stock keyboard, then switched to swype (which cancels their beta version every 2 months, requiring you to re-teach it the custom dictionary) finally got sick of re-teaching the dictionary and currently I am working with swiftkey.
Finally some more android phones with physical keyboards are coming on the market, and I may dump my (otherwis
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Actually, you need a bit of training to use the on screen keyboards. I, too, was wedded to my HTC phones for their kbd, and had troubles at first with the iPhone because I didn't understand how they work. The capacitive screens see a potential rise which is centered around the contact point - like a big bump or hill - not a single x,y location. The OS (well, drivers) then reduce that potential field to the most likely point. I believe that for the keyboard, additional processing is done to predict what
Disambiguation (Score:2)
Does anybody else use an iPhone as their primary work device?
Did you mean "primary device for work" or "primary device at work"?
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Does anybody else use an iPhone as their primary work device?
Did you mean "primary device for work" or
"primary device at work"?
What? Playing Tiny Tower is *like* work... Is that close enough?
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Yes. And there are many where I work that are happy with it.
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I'm not saying that the iPhone isn't a good phone, but it has no physical keyboard. Many employees use their phone for answering email; to me the iPhone seems like it would really inconvenient for use in this manner.
Hello 2007,
I'm glad to see you are still around complaining about the lack of physical keyboards. It seems the market has spoken and is in disagreement with your assessment. Now if you would kindly return to complaining about the lack or right mouse buttons on Macs or claims of "security through obscurity", the slashdot world will all be right again.
Sincerely,
Humanity
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I'm an iPhone user and generally like the platform, but the lack of a physical keyboard is problematic when it's cold out. I suspect many employees oil services company will be using their phones outside while gloves, which will be an challenge on the iPhone's touchscreen.
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That's not an issue.
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They make gloves with contact patches for smart phones. If you aren't completely retarded and have 20 extra minutes you can make any gloves smartphone friendly with conductive thread.
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My touch screen phone is my primary digital device. Period.
My computer has fallen back into niche uses like coding and writing extensively long multi-page articles.
The touch screen keyboard becomes second nature within a week of ownership. This holds true for all touch screen phones, Android, iPhone or WinPhone7.
At the end of the day, if a keyboard is so important, there are a a lot of cases that come with bluetooth keyboard. Just check this link out:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=bluetooth+keyboard+ca [bing.com]
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Yes, I use the iPhone for work. I type emails on it. It's fine. In fact, I prefer typing (and type faster) on my iPhone to typing on my Blackberry, but I recognize that it's a personal preference thing.
I have both an iPhone and a Blackberry, and the Blackberry gets no use.
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Why would it necessarily be there primary work device?
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I am not saying your not a good commenter, but 2007 called and they want their argument back. Many if not most people find typing on a virtual keyboard far superior to the pointless little keyboard on the blackberry.
Does it take getting used to? Sure. Give it a week. The email signatures about "excuse my fucked up typing" originated on Blackberry.
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I do. After about 3 weeks of getting used to the change from my Blackberry device to my iPhone, I find I'm more efficient on the iPhone.
I only use a messaging device when I can see the screen and focus on my message. The iPhone keyboard works more than adequately as long as you can look at it for the initial typing - once you've started, your hands will touch-type. More importantly, it seems more forgiving than the Blackberry once you're typing long messages.
Overall, I'm happier. I have one device that serv
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My BB 9860 has no physical keyboard...
Only reason I like it over the Apple is the phone sound, signal quality, and better defined handset policies.
(ActiveSync support is a little pot-luck - http://www.sysadminlab.net/activesync/iphone-os-4-and-exchange-activesync-policies-what-really-works [sysadminlab.net])
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No, but I certainly don't carry a laptop around merely to write email. In fact, I have no laptop smaller than a 17" MacBook Pro, as I've learned from long experience that, for my own applications at least, the delusion that laptops without "desktop-grade" keyboards and displays are reasonable "desktop replacements" is a real productivity-killer (c.f., e.g., an iPad, which is obviously not a reasonable desktop replacement, hence more likely to be
Remember their coveted corporate user base? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Remember their coveted corporate user base? (Score:4, Funny)
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Feds won't like it (Score:5, Insightful)
iOS does not have a FIPS 140-2 certified encryption module associated with it, meaning that viewing non-public government data on their e-mail system would be a contract violation at worst and might expose them to criminal liability. Aren't these guys basically government contractors?
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There is no reason why Apple in conjunction with the Federal Government and others couldn't come up with a way to make the iPhone meet whatever federal standards are necessary, especially if it means a big sale to a major company.
Re:Feds won't like it (Score:5, Informative)
There is also no reason why the Android couldn't do the same. Lawyers don't care about whether it would have been possible for some company to modify their product to meet the requirements of a contract - they care what was done.
RIM designed their infrastructure and device from the ground up to be secure and there is a reason why nearly all the law firms, government contractors and big business uses their devices. Apple designed their iPhone around the best user experience - 2 different objectives and this explains why they've had great success with the home type users.
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Reason: When a bunch of high profile senators want to use their one iPhone to handle their email, or the president of the United States himself wants to use his iPad to check his email, they will come up with legal exceptions to allow it.
Sure, can happen with Android, once they forget about CarrierIQ.
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From what I've seen Blackberries aren't that secure maybe less secure than an iPhone which seems even more boxed in.
Re:Feds won't like it (Score:4, Informative)
You're right, there's no reason Apple can't...except it hasn't bothered. Until last year, Apple didn't have a FIPS 140-2 certified encryption module for *anything*. And it's not like if Apple developed an iOS encryption module and submitted it for approval that suddenly it's done; FIPS 140-2 is a testing requirement; it can take a long time before your encryption module is certified after being submitted for testing.
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Gee, I wonder where Apple is going to ever find the resources to develop a FIPS 140-2 capable device. Will $40 billion cover it?
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Personally, I'm willing to bet that sooner or later pigs will fly, purely from a philosophical point of view. Pigs generally abhor being locked into a single mode of transportation since it has a tendency to lead to pork chops and ham shoulders. How much longer before you can only buy pigs from the Pig Store, effectively locking out other channels to obtain your pig products.
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(Posting AC because I'm at work)
It would appear you're not entirely correct: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/04/prweb3829534.htm
"Mocana Corporation, a company that focuses on securing non-PC connected devices, today announced that it has earned the government's first FIPS 140-2 level one validation for an encryption product running on the Apple iPhone or iPad."
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And yet....iphones are used throughout the Federal Government...
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iOS does not have a FIPS 140-2 certified encryption module associated with it, meaning that viewing non-public government data on their e-mail system would be a contract violation at worst and might expose them to criminal liability. Aren't these guys basically government contractors?
Insightful ? After 5 minutes of Googling [prweb.com] :
"Mocana Corporation, a company that focuses on securing non-PC connected devices, today announced that it has earned the government's first FIPS 140-2 level one validation for an encryption product running on the Apple iPhone or iPad. "
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OK, I see an AC beat me to that. That'll teach me to ignore them.
DoD going with Android (Score:2)
I am sure that won't be an issue shortly. The Department of Defense is already moving toward a switch [gcn.com]to Android with "secure" smartphones. RIM is losing its corporate base...and more importantly, now they are losing their lucrative government base.
Check yo facts, foo. (Score:5, Informative)
Mac OS X is FIPS 140-2 certified: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val2011.htm#1514
iOS is working on FIPS certification (Review Pending stage for iPad, iPhone on IUT) right now: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/140InProcess.pdf
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Apple seeks to better iPad, iPhone security via FIPS 140-2 compliance [techtarget.com]
Re:Feds won't like it (Score:5, Informative)
You can think of FIPS 140-1 as what's commonly referred to as encryption strength (that is, the type of encryption, like AES 256). FIPS 140-2 is a certification that the encryption you're using under 140-1 has been implemented properly and it looks like this chart combines both one and two. To the best of my knowledge there's no 140-2 certification for iOS.
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I wasn't directly involved in the site security certification stuff, but the Contractor I used to work for was doing test runs on iPhones as corporate communications devices when I left 5 months ago; and my wife's boss at Raytheon was debating an iPhone or BB as her new work phone a month or so ago. They must have gotten certified sometime in the last 6-8 months.
No mention if Droids were considered (Score:2)
I'm curious as to what were Halliburton's reasons for going Apple.
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it says "via the iPhone", leaving other smartphone platforms open in the long run. the funny thing in their wording is that they don't consider bb's as smartphones.
Re:No mention if Droids were considered (Score:4, Interesting)
I suspect that it has something to do with support level. Google doesn't do end-user support, so you're stuck with a raft of manufacturers that have no proven support structure and are notoriously behind schedule when it comes to OS updates. Apple has a good history of keeping their phones up to date with the latest OS revision for at least a couple of years, which is probably pretty enticing.
The REAL question is why they didn't consider Windows phones. Or maybe they did, but couldn't wait for the WP8 update. There's a company that has a long history of enterprise support; they seem like they'd be a natural fit.
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"The REAL question is why they didn't consider Windows phones.", they looked at their desktops and decided they didn't want any more of that?
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Again, this may change in a year or two, but given their past transgressions, I'm not holding my breath.
Holding your breath for a year or two is probably not a good idea, well not unless you've got some other mechanism for managing O2 and CO2 levels in your blood.
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iOS has a better centralized management system and enterprise app delivery platform. Most of the enterprise-grade stuff you see in Android is bolted on by an OEM, and I doubt Halliburton wants to buy a few thousand RAZRs and hope that Motorola either isn't messed up by Google or headed down the tubes.
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Some high level exec wanted to use his iPhone 4S for work so he was able to tell Siri to manage his meetings and ordered it to happen.
data usage (Score:2)
Hey (Score:2)
Lotsa cheap used devices becoming available!
(punched on one of those dinosour "real" thumb keyboards with a click one can feel)
Another Nail in the BB Coffin (Score:3, Interesting)
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Perfect example of not keeping up... (Score:3, Insightful)
The latest Blackberry ads proudly claim "we want a tool, not a toy". Um yeah, no.
If your tool actually did anything that the Android and iOS toys don't do, you might have a point. But since the toys do everything your tool does, but even better, your company is on the brink of extinction.
Let me get this straight (Score:3)
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Good for you, but it doesn't work that way anywhere I've seen. You get what you get.
Re:If I worked at Halliburton, I'd be Droid now (Score:4, Informative)
That's easy to say, but when you're in any kind of regulated industry you often can't. Usually industries like energy, health care, finance, and government contracting have a limited number of devices that they're allowed to use. They could provide you a list and let you purchase one from the list, but they usually prefer just to purchase and issue phones they they know are allowed. Some also reduce the choices further to simply support. It's not always about you...
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No, I'm fairly sure it is about him. Companies simply don't like him.
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Whoah, I bet you have the wallet that says "Bad Mother Fucker" on it, too.