Apple Continues its Takeover

Two months ago, Deutsche Bank Equity Research began piloting the Apple iPhone as a potential replacement for Research In Motion's BlackBerry smart phone. The initial results are in and according to Chris Whitmore, the firm's research analyst, "there's no going back" to BlackBerry.

Apple, which makes the iPhone and iPad, is very rapidly gaining a stranglehold on the market and there is probably further bad news for its competitors coming on the horizon as Agio Technology, which helps hedge funds manage their IT, including communications, is coming out with a report on its iPad Challenge, which will break down how hedge funds are using the portable technology.

Also next week, be sure to check back as we will be publishing the Waters Profile of Alan Goldstein, CIO of BNY Mellon Asset Management and International. Below is an excerpt on how the firm is implementing the iPad:

The firm has also identified areas in technology where it can create scalable, leverage-able centers of excellence, or COEs, that can be used to expand its investment management companies in areas such as trading, compliance, accounting, billing and customer-relationship management. Additionally, it has also been active in tapping into new collaboration technologies, such as Apple's iPad and an internal Facebook-like solution. BNY Mellon Asset Management recently completed a rollout of iPads to sales and marketing reps at Dreyfus, one of the firm's 20 boutiques, comprising a family of retail and institutional mutual funds and separately managed accounts. The result is fewer papers that have to be carried around to business meetings and the ability to create a more efficient presentation. Also, the information therein will be available in near-real time. The firm is also piloting the iPad for functions such as email and corporate access.

"The challenges around this new space where people want to do much more on their Android or iPad or whatever, is providing a secure environment to access company information, or to store it in a secure way so that the information isn't compromised in the event that the device is lost," Goldstein says. "Figuring out how to do that with the latest generation of devices that aren't as mature from a corporate standpoint is the real challenge."