Standard Chartered is switching from bankers' favourite BlackBerry to Apple's iPhone for its staff, according to Reuters.
Citing a Singapore-based spokeswoman, Reuters says a group-wide initiative to migrate corporate e-mail services from RIM's BlackBerry handsets to iPhones began about a month ago.
It is not known what proportion of Standard Chartered's 75,000 staff use company-issued phones or when the switch over will be completed.
Meanwhile, Reuters says that Singapore's Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp has begun offering its staff a choice between BlackBerrys and iPhones.
BlackBerry has long been the dominant player in corporate handset provision but is now beginning to face competition from Apple and smartphones running Google's Android operating system.
However, Lu Chialin, IT industry analyst at Macquarie Securities told Reuters it will take a long time for BlackBerry's supremacy to be overhauled because firms need to carry out stringent testing before switching to ensure they can guarantee data security.
Apple's iPhone replaces Blackberry for some bankers - Reuters