A survey issued Monday by IDG Connect shows that 91% of business and IT professionals use their iPad more for business communication than personal needs. They also found that over 25% of employers deployed iPads to their employees.

Other numbers included in the survey -

• 97% of professionals use the iPad for reading
• 70% + now buy fewer physical books and newspapers
• 72% of iPad owners carry their laptop less
• 66% say the iPad has partially or completely replaced their laptop

iPads are not only a cheaper option than laptop computers for employers but they’re also much more portable. If an iPad suits an employee’s business needs it may be a better option financially than a laptop. 83% of the employers surveyed also said they would not consider another kind of tablet after using the iPad.

Source: The Loop

RIM today announced BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, something they’re touting as “The Next Generation Enterprise Mobility Solution for BlackBerry, Android and iOS Smartphones and Tablets”. Really. Says so right here:

We are pleased to introduce BlackBerry Mobile Fusion – RIM’s next generation enterprise mobility solution – to make it easier for our business and government customers to manage the diversity of devices in their operations today,” said Alan Panezic, Vice President, Enterprise Product Management and Marketing at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry Mobile Fusion brings together our industry-leading BlackBerry Enterprise Server technology for BlackBerry devices with mobile device management capabilities for iOS and Android devices, all managed from one web-based console. It provides the necessary management capabilities to allow IT departments to confidently oversee the use of both company-owned and employee-owned mobile devices within their organizations.

While RIM is still struggling to get PlayBook to 2.0 and BBX superphones into the hungry hands of the CrackBerry Nation, this could be an interesting way to hedge against Enterprise BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trends that skew users away from traditional BlackBerry’s and towards iPhones.

Still, consumers would probably still prefer BBM for iOS…

Source: CrackBerry.com

Not sure how I missed this but about a month ago Apple put 9 video podcasts up on iTunes under the title iPhone in Business: Execs talk iPhone. Current episodes all feature Brandon Edling, Director of Desktop Technology for NBC Universal and include: What’s on your iPhone, Interesting Time in IT, Productivity, Workflow and Air Video, Apps, Employees, Deployment, Security, and NBC Universal and iPhone.

For the company that runs iTunes, Apple’s podcast strategy has always been less consistent and more creative, with episodes coming in batches rather than regular intervals, and series dropping off and picking up. It will be interesting to see if they continue iPhone in Business, and what else comes of it.

If you’re into enterprise and/or IT, check them out and let us know what you think.

[iTunes link]

Fortune has covered Forrester Research’s latest report “Making iPhone Work In The Enterprise: Early Lessons Learned”. Whiplash-much? After all, it does come on the heels of previous reports including “The iPhone Is Not Meant For Enterprises”, “The Top 10 Reasons Why We Recommend That IT Not Support It”, and “Harold and Kumar Don’t Want an iPhone at White Castle”. Okay, we made that last one up. Barely.

This time the people who were crafting link-bait before there were any links to bait have seemingly decided the best bang for their buck is to pull a 180 and, instead of trouncing the iPhone in enterprise, actually support it. Sure, Apple’s increasing development of the OS, including iPhone 2.x and the upcoming iPhone 3.0 could have something to do with it, but even in IT it’s generally more about the artist than the tools. So to speak.

What does Forrester claim makes the iPhone so suddenly worthy?

• Employees like them. “In this era of Technology Populism, where consumer IT is often better than enterprise IT, it sometimes just makes sense to give employees the freedom to choose the tools they want.”
• They make mobile collaboration easier. “As anybody with experience on both iPhones and BlackBerry will tell you, the Internet feels natural on an iPhone and a like a chore on a BlackBerry.”
• iPhone users need less hand-holding. “All three firms have set up wikis so that employees can support each other. ‘Our early adopters sometimes teach things we’d rather our iPhone users not know, but overall they provide better support than we can,’ said one person we interviewed.”
• They can be cheaper in the long run. “In at least one case, an iPhone adopter found that the data plans for previous mobile devices were more expensive than the consumer plans AT&T is offering for iPhones. This company was able to reset its baseline plan pricing 30% lower for all phones because it supported iPhone.”

For an actual iPhone endorsement, some remaining corporate gotchas, and 3.0 redemptioms, check out Fortune‘s coverage or throw $749 at Forrester (if you didn’t just blow that cash on an unlocked iPhone…)

[Thanks to The Reptile for the tip!]