Even the men in suits want iPhones, and — if the reports are correct — they might even ditch their BlackBerries to get them. An article from ZDNET Australia says that the HSBC bank might swap wholesale to Apple’s iPhone, providing the handsets for around 200,000 employees worldwide. HSBC boss Brenton Hush:

We are actually reviewing iPhones from a HSBC Group perspective … and when I say that, I mean globally

Last year, other phone makers made much of the iPhone’s poor suitability for the business market, a perception helped along by Apple’s own PC vs. Mac commercials. Now though, with Exchange support and third party applications, those arguments are dust.

200,000 iPhones is a big order, but if this signifies a trend, the ripples could spread much farther. Phones are cheaper and replaced more often than computers. With Vista widely perceived as junk, and many companies holding off upgrading from XP, could a good corporate experience with the iphone trigger the famous Apple ‘halo-effect’ and bring Macs into the office?

HSBC could order 200,000 iPhones [ZDNET]

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