Edible Apple

In yet another sign that the iPhone continues to make strong inroads into workplaces where RIM has traditionally had a stranglehold, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is currently testing the iPhone for use in its 200,000+ workforce.

JPMorgan is testing for security in batches of a few hundred devices with a decision expected later this year, one of the people familiar with the matter said. JPMorgan would not buy iPhones or Android phones for employees, as it now does with BlackBerrys. Rather, the bank would allow employees to use the devices to send and receive corporate e-mail if they make the purchase themselves, the other person said.

Meanwhile, UBS AG is also exploring the idea of allowing its 60,000+ employees use the iPhone in place of the standard issue BlackBerry that most employees receive to access the UBS email system.

Back at Apple’s iOS event in July, Apple COO Tim Cook noted that more than 80% of Fortune 100 companies have either deployed the iPhone to its workforce or are in the midst of testing the device out.

If you look at the iPhone, we’re now up to more than 80% of the Fortune 100 that are deploying or piloting the iPhone, and we also see very good momentum in the Fortune 500. In fact, over 60% of the Fortune 500 are deploying or piloting iPhone. This is also transcending into education institutions, and we see around 400 higher education institutions which have approved the iPhone for faculty, staff and students. And so iPhone is really taking off, and iOS4 was another help in doing that.

Apple, of course, has helped propel the iPhone further into the enterprise by slowly but surely adding important features that most businesses demand in a smartphone, such as strong encryption and the ability to remotely wipe a lost or stolen device.

Also infiltrating the enterprise is the iPad, where Cook noted that in the first 90 days of availablity, the device was already deployed or undergoing testing in 50% of the Fortune 500.

Those are some strong and telling numbers that don’t bode well for a company like RIM who has been unable to parlay it’s email success into wider consumer smartphone sales.

via Bloomberg

Related: Citibank remedies security flaw in mobile iPhone app