Slashdot Mirror


Yahoo Excludes BlackBerry From Employee Smartphone List

Nerval's Lobster writes "Freshly minted Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is promising the company's U.S. employees a new smartphone of their choice. There's just one catch: it can't be a BlackBerry. According to Business Insider, which posted significant portions of Mayer's memo, employees will have a choice of the Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X, HTC EVO 4G LTE, Nokia Lumia 920, or the upcoming iPhone 5. 'We'd like our employees to have devices similar to our users, so we can think and work as the majority of our users do,' she wrote, adding that Yahoo will shift away from BlackBerry as its corporate device of choice. Somewhere up in Waterloo, at least one Research In Motion executive could be screaming in frustration over this development. Not because Yahoo is a bellwether for corporate smartphone use; its U.S. employees shifting to an iOS, Windows Phone or Android device won't automatically drive other major companies will follow suit. But as a symbol of RIM's current issues, it's difficult to find a better one than a high-profile technology company dumping its collective BlackBerry stock in favor of pretty much any other platform."

11 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Nokia Lumia 920 by Alarash · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'm also kind of tired of seeing C# being frowned upon just because it's tied to Microsoft. It's a kick ass language.

  2. Why a Microsoft phone? by binarylarry · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No one buys Microsoft phones.

    They're in the same boat as RIM but they get a pass for some reason.

    I can only assume Microsoft is paying them to stay somehow? Maybe free phones?

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
    1. Re:Why a Microsoft phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Because RIM is on the decline and there is a fair amount of momentum behind MS. Even if the device doesn't make sales it's not likely to disappear from the market as soon as Blackberry.
       
      But I know you're just being a hateful twat. Must suck to get your sense of self-worth from a device, eh?

    2. Re:Why a Microsoft phone? by DogDude · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No one buys Microsoft phones.

      Not true. This is posted from a Windows 7 Phone. They work just fine. I'm happy with mine. You don't know what you're talking about.

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    3. Re:Why a Microsoft phone? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The US military still insists on Blackberries over iPhone / Andoid. So just like with the US government's use of Iridium sat phones kept that company afloat, until the US military stops using Blackberries, the company will be "around".

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    4. Re:Why a Microsoft phone? by Anubis+IV · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm talking about making your own version of the OS, and then, yes, rooting the phones and installing it.

      Otherwise, yep, you are correct in the general case, but this is the military we're talking about, so I'm guessing they may have some experience in rolling their own already. ;)

  3. What does this mean for Yahoo? by NixieBunny · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This sounds like a ploy to retain employees by tempting them with shiny objects.

    --
    The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
  4. No real keyboards? by JDG1980 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    choice of the Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X, HTC EVO 4G LTE, Nokia Lumia 920, or the upcoming iPhone 5

    None of these phones have real keyboards. To those of us with large fingers, that's a deal-breaker when selecting a phone; on-screen keyboards are simply unusable with a screen that small. As much as it sucks in other ways, the BlackBerry at least did offer a hardware keyboard. Yahoo should offer at least one Android phone with an actual keyboard (maybe the Samsung Epic 4G?)

  5. History repeats itself by concealment · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Companies that both manufacture hardware and hand-roll their operating systems tend to collapse over time.

    There are too many decisions which must be made centrally, and these involve too many conflicting "business objectives." In other words, the two branches (hardware and OS) can't figure out how to work together to nudge consumers toward spending more money, time and effort on the product.

    Apple ducked this one by purchasing the core of its operating system from two sources, and allowing maintenance to be mostly driven by updates at least one of those OSes (BSD).

    Blackberry has been frozen in motion (like Yahoo), unable to develop new software or hardware at the pace of the market. The result is that the world has moved on and, by parallax motion, RIM has moved backward.

  6. Re:Nokia Lumia 920 by SQLGuru · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When you focus on just those items, sure. But that table didn't include all of the features of both languages. Where's LINQ? Lamda expressions? etc.?

    Run that same table to compare against any other language derived from C/C++.......there will be similar overlap. The point of that table looked like it was to get someone started on making the move from one language to the other.

  7. Re:That's gotta hurt by LordLimecat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Clueful IT departments will still favor blackberry as it still is far more manageable and secure than the other options. The only real issue is that your coworkers will probably hate you.