Is RIM on the verge of a mass exodus from enterprise?

It would be one thing if Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) was losing spark on the consumer side, which it is, but alarms must be going off at RIM’s headquarters now that news is trickling in about losses on the enterprise side.
Business, and particularly big business, is a longtime stronghold for RIM, but every other major operating system is making inroads against the BlackBerry maker and today it was dealt a triple blow.
First, Dell Inc. (DELL) told The Wall Street Journal that it plans to move its 25,000 employees off of BlackBerry devices and onto upcoming Dell devices running on Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Windows Phone 7 OS and eventually Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Android OS.
“Clearly in this decision we are competing with RIM, because we’re kicking them out,” Dell’s CFO Brian Gladden told the Journal. He added that the switch, which will begin next week, will also save the company about 25% in costs by eliminating the need for BlackBerry servers.
Moreover, Dell plans to begin marketing a service to its business clients that might be interested in making a similar switch.
For its part, RIM dismissed Dell’s move out of hand: “We find it highly unlikely that they will actually save any money with this move and far more likely they were looking for a little free publicity,” said Mark Guibert, RIM’s SVP of corporate marketing. “Consider all the hard and soft costs of purchasing, deploying and supporting new devices and new software inside a company.”
On the heels of Dell’s defection, Bloomberg reports that Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (C) might be throwing in the towel on RIM as well.
Both banking giants are determining whether or not to let employees use Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone instead of BlackBerry devices for corporate e-mail. The companies are testing software that would reportedly make company messages secure enough on the iOS platform to meet their needs. It’s worth noting that Citibank and Bank of America don’t plan to completely ditch RIM, but rather give their employees another option when it comes to smart phones for work.
Apple’s recent comments suggest that a much greater corporate exodus from RIM could be around the corner. Last month, the company said 80% of the Fortune 500 companies are either deploying or testing the iPhone.