Apple's poaching BlackBerries (RIM folk jump ship)

Yet more dogs of war heard howling in the mists as we learn Apple has been quietly poaching senior enterprise sales staff from competitor, Research In Motion. The Wall Street Journal (via MR) tells us Apple has hired at least five members of the RIM enterprise team — and stresses there could be even more Apple switchers making the move to iPhone.

In the past 18 months, at least five members of RIM’s enterprise-sales team have left the company to join Apple. This includes Geoff Perfect, who served as Head of Strategic Sales at RIM for nearly five years before leaving in April 2009 and joining Apple a month later as Head of Enterprise iPhone Sales, according to LinkedIn, the online networking service for professionals.

These hirings clearly reflect Apple’s growing place in the enterprise. Apple itself has told us that 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies are already studying/trialling use of or are already using iPhones as part of their essential infrastructure. Apple also has growing conversions in the sector on back of its iPad, which, with 4.2, is even better for business.

During the most recent Apple financial call, Steve Jobs slammed RIM as being out of its comfort zone in a tirade in which he also pointed out that iPhone outsold BlackBerry in the most recent quarter. And Apple execs stressed the company continues to make attempts at the enterprise — hence all the rock-hard security bvuilt-into iOS 4.2.

Android meanwhile continues to gain sales, but doesn’t appear yet to have charmed corporate markets.

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