In September, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said that she would give every employee a new smartphone of their choice, as long as it’s not a BlackBerry. Mayer seems to be backing up this promise, and during an interview with Fortune, she said that BlackBerrys aren’t considered smartphones anymore. In the interview, Mayer said that she wanted her employees to switch “from BlackBerries to smartphones”. She backed up her claim by saying the following:
“One of the really important things for Yahoo’s strategy moving forward is mobile. So it was really important that our engineers, our salespeople, really everyone throughout our whole organization really understand Android, iPhones, and, you know, Windows 8 and really get a sense of what’s happening there and how to create an amazing experience… so we decided we wanted to get everyone upgraded to smartphones.”
While BlackBerrys are still considered smartphones to most, the lack of a new OS or hardware over the past year has let down many hardcore Blackberry users. Some Blackberry users, like Greg Gottesman, have been two-timing with both a Blackberry and an iPhone for quite some time, but have just recently switched full-time to iPhone. Blackberry 10 is set to be released early next year.
We’ve embedded Meyer’s interview after the break.
