Why Enterprise's Should Stay with BlackBerry for Now

In a recent Forbes article, BlackBerry Owners Flock to iPhone 4s in Record Numbers, the author insinuates that this this is the beginning of the end for BlackBerry because of their recent service issues and unclear roadmap.  This may be the case for BlackBerry's consumer market but I challenge that there is a clear cut reason for companies to jump ship to the iPhone.  An enterprise that has a sizeable investment in BlackBerry should consider the following before swapping out their BlackBerry devices for the iphone.

• Primary use of smartphones in your company is still email, calendar, contacts and phones
• No industry or company specific applications that are only available on the iPhone
• Poor support model for iPhone replacement (requires going to the local Apple store)
• Cost of iPhone versus BlackBerry when procuring through major wireless vendors.  In most cases, a BlackBerry device can be procured for next to nothing while an iPhone4 is $99.
• Immaturity of management tools for the iPhone.  Yes, there are MDM solutions for the iPhone but very few of them are to the maturity of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

The debate on whether enterprise companies should migrate away from BlackBerry will continue to get traction if the company doesn't find away to rectify its recent mis-steps.  However, for now I contend that the BlackBerry solution for the companies is a solid for those that already have the investment.

Why I decided to get Apple Certified

For years, I have absolutely despised technical certifications as I have worked with certified professionals that only excelled at reading books and failed in application of their knowledge.  Based upon this I put off working on my Apple certification for my current job.   However, this week I decided to change my mind and obtained my certification as an Apple Certified Associated - 10.7 Lion Integration.  I know this is just an entry level certification from Apple but it is the beginning to become an Apple Certified Technician.

Not to sound cliche after the passing of Steve Jobs, but after listening to his 2005 Stanford speech several times I got motivated to learn something new to move my career forward.  I am hoping this motivation will see me through the next certification level that I hoping to achieve by the end of the year.