Buildcorp ditches BlackBerry for Nokia?

ZDNet reports on a story where by Buildcorp ditched their BlackBerry’s in favour of…Nokia. Nokia Lumia to be precise.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/buildcorp-ditches-blackberry-for-nokia-339340159.htm

After the construction company’s telecommunications contract expired, they decided to ditch blackberry and opt instead for WP7. The company had a mix of 50-60 BB and 100 voice phones. The choice to go all smartphone was the need to access project data online. The reason they opted to go for Windows Phone? Recommendations from their IT folks at Netcare which would apparently reduce the administration required. The company providing the application that they needed for their work, ProjectCentre, also advised on WP7.

Well OK, so WP7 it is. But Nokia wasn’t the only choice. HD7 and Omnia were also competing with the Lumia 800 and 710. They trialled all the devices and in the end bought 150 Nokia Lumia phones.

Why?

• Nokia phone seemed to have a more rugged design (hopefully they didn’t just go on the Nokia indestructible meme). Apparently they might see less broken phones like they did when they owned BBs.
• Nokia Drive and Nokia maps are popular as is Mix Radio

Why not stick with BB?

Apparently WP7 was more user friendly, better for less tech savvy users or older people (even though the BB userbase is apparently older)

Ironically, they also decided against BB because they were unsure about its long term proposition.

Brett Hoskins from Buildcorp said:

Nokia’s commitment to the Windows Phone platform was important in our decision to adopt Lumia. Other phone providers have a limited number of phones on the Windows Phone platform, with the remaining running Android. This long-term partnership with Microsoft ensures we have the right product support in place now and in the future.

WP7.5 might be a great fit for these people now, but how about in the near future when WP8 arrives? Well their phones won’t suddenly grind to a halt in responsiveness. They’ll still be just as fast. The people providing their app will have it specifically compatible for the OS they recommended. The homescreens could be upgraded in future if they want but the big simple layout right now is working for them as it is. Added customisability later is just an extra bonus.

If in future the handsets need upgrading, then they may move to WP8 (or WP9 by then) which will be backward compatible with any apps they previously used.

Source: zdnet

Thanks Loci for the tip!

Category: Lumia, Nokia, Windows Phone