J.P. Morgan Testing BlackBerry Alternatives, iPhone to Benefit? (JPM, RIMM, AAPL)

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is testing alternatives to Research in Motion's (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry, according to people familiar with the situation. Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone could soon let employees access corporate e-mail.

According to a Bloomberg report, "JPMorgan is testing the Apple Inc. device and smartphones based on Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android software, said the people, who didn’t want to be named because the plans haven’t been made public. The bank is the second-largest in the U.S. by assets and has about 220,000 employees worldwide."

J.P. Morgan is only the latest bank to consider switching to a BlackBerry alternative. UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) and Standard Chartered Bank Plc have both considered a move to the iPhone.

"This phenomenon is very new and we expect it to put increased pressure on RIM’s performance," Pierre Ferragu, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd., told Bloomberg. "BlackBerry isn’t the only alternative to offer employees mobile e-mail."

The Bloomberg report notes that "JPMorgan is testing for security in batches of a few hundred devices with a decision expected later this year, one of the people familiar with the matter said. JPMorgan would not buy iPhones or Android phones for employees, as it now does with BlackBerrys. Rather, the bank would allow employees to use the devices to send and receive corporate e-mail if they make the purchase themselves, the other person said."

Shares of J.P. Morgan and Apple are down slightly this afternoon, to $39.90 and $262.41, respectively. Research in Motion continues to slide, down 3% today, to $43.68.

Beat the market consistently by receiving real-time trade alerts from the ETF Professor!