Skip to main content

Dell moves 25,000 employees off BlackBerry onto Dell phone

Dell is hot for smartphones. In a sign of support for its new product line, Dell plans to move roughly 25,000 of its 100,000 employees off of BlackBerry phones and onto its own line of Dell phones, specifically the Venue Pro. In addition, the PC manufacturer will begin pushing its corporate clients to use the Venue Pro, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Dell Venue Pro will soon be available on AT&T as one of the first devices to run Microsoft Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Dell is betting big on its new device, but is also dumping BlackBerry for economical reasons. The company will save 25 percent in mobile costs by eliminating its BlackBerry infrastructure, said Brian Gladden, Dell’s CFO. “We actually had a conversation last night around creating a site on eBay where we can actually sell these BlackBerry devices,” he said, referring to the thousands of BlackBerry’s Dell will have to sell or recycle.

This move is another blow to RIM, which continues to see its grip on the business market loosen. Dell plans to help businesses switch away from having to use special BlackBerry servers with its own business services. The company launched its first smartphones, the Aero and Streak, this summer. Both devices run Android, but Dell’s strong ties to Microsoft are clear. Neither the Streak or the Aero are being offered to employees. Instead, Dell is banking much of its success on the Windows-powered Venue Pro.

Gladden said his company is working closely with Microsoft. Both companies are working toward the same goal of appealing to businesses by creating a personally appealing phone.

Jeffrey Van Camp
Former Digital Trends Contributor
As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…
5 things I want to see in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and S Pen stylus on its screen.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is definitely one of the best smartphones on the market right now, no doubt about that. You get incredible performance with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, plenty of RAM and storage, a whopping 200MP camera, two telephoto lenses for 3x and 5x optical zoom, S Pen integration, and more. It’s certainly an impressive package.

But it’s not perfect. In fact, some weaknesses could be improved in the next version, the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Here’s what I hope to see next year.
A new design
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (left) and Galaxy S23 Ultra Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Read more
The Galaxy S24 just got a big camera update. Here’s what’s new
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra in Titanium Orange and in Titanium Silver.

Samsung Galaxy S24 owners just received some great news. Samsung recently released an April software update that addresses various camera issues. Unfortunately, this update is only available in South Korea, but according to information posted on the Samsung Korea forum, it is expected to be released in other regions soon.

Firmware version S928NKSU1AXCA is almost 800MB in size. It includes improvements for lowlight images and image colors in Samsung's Expert RAW app, improved text clarity when zooming in photo mode, and support for 480 x 480 resolution when recording Instant Slow-Mo videos. The Galaxy S24 update for April builds on the improvements from the previous February release, which included enhanced zoom, portrait mode, night mode, and rear camera video capture capabilities.

Read more
Apple just announced the dates for WWDC 2024
WWDC 2024 banner.

Apple has just announced the dates for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024. WWDC will take place from June 10 through June 14, 2024. A special event will be held at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, on June 10, and we expect to see the reveal of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, tvOS 18, macOS 15, and visionOS 2.

WWDC will be free for all developers online. Developers will be able to access a variety of online sessions and labs that will showcase the latest advancements in software across all of Apple’s hardware.

Read more