Kicking a boot into RIM’s side, Dell’s announced all 25,000 employees will be given Dell Venue Pros running WP7 in exchange for their BlackBerrys, but they’re also offering a new service to their clients for help switching from BlackBerry.
Dell’s Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said of the change that “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 BlackBery devices.”
Hitting up their business clients with a new service to switch their staff from BlackBerrys to other devices—namely, the Dell Venue Pro—is a cunning plan which RIM can’t be too happy about. Gladden told the WSJ that “it’s not clear to [RIM] the scope of what we’re doing.” I imagine it will be pretty clear once RIM reads the headlines today, Dell… [WSJ]
