Apple has lured at least five members of rival Research In Motion’s
enterprise sales team to sell the iPhone and iPad to more corporate accounts.
Until just a few years ago, RIM BlackBerry commanded over half of the U.S.
smartphone market, challenged mainly by Microsoft Windows Mobile.
Apple’s iPhone burst out of the gate on AT&T in 2007, with Google’s
Android platform launching far more slowly on the T-Mobile G1 in 2008.
Apple’s iOS, along with Google’s Android operating system, has spent the
better part of 2010 pecking away at RIM’s and Microsoft’s shares of the smartphone
market.
Now Apple is snapping up RIM employees. According to the Wall Street Journal, which cited LinkedIn profiles, some five
members of RIM’s enterprise-sales team have left the company to join Apple.
This includes Geoff Perfect, who led strategic sales at RIM for nearly five
years before joining Apple in 2009 as head of enterprise iPhone sales.
For more, read the eWeek article: Apple Poaching RIM People for Enterprise iPhone, IPad Sales.