Global bank HSBC is currently considering swapping out its exclusive use of Blackberry and adopting Apples iPhone as the standard device for its employees, a move that should see them order 200,000 iPhone’s.

“We are actually reviewing iPhone’s from a HSBC Group perspective … and when I say that, I mean globally,” HSBC’s Australia and New Zealand chief information officer Brenton Hush said yesterday

HSBC has around 300,000 staff internationally, so if the move went ahead it would likely be one of the world’s largest iPhone orders.

“A decision on a piece of hardware like that would potentially be deployed, conservatively, to 200,000 people,” said Hush. “You know, it’s a big decision, especially when you have an existing fleet out there.”

“But it’s definitely something we are considering from a HSBC Group perspective,” he said.

“We always explore the potential application of new technologies and this is no different.”

Were HSBC to select the iPhone as its official corporate mobile device, the decision would be a major blow to Research in Motion (RIM), the designer of the Blackberry.

When the iPhone made its debut, many large firms passed up switching to the device, mainly due to limited availability and the lack of support for Microsoft’s Exchange email platform. Now though, Apple has rectified these issues and built a number of new tools in to the new model specifically targeted for corporate use.

Hush said that although he did not own an iPhone, he has “obviously had hands on experience with them.”

Steven Bandrowczak, global CIO of Nortel, which has 30,000 staff, said he doubted whether his staff would choose the iPhone over its current device, the BlackBerry due to the latter device’s superior email functionality.

However, Hush’s believes the iPhone is more than up to task.

“I think [the iPhone] would change some underlying infrastructure considerations from an enterprise perspective. But [Apple] have been pretty smart with the design.”

The CIO, whose office is located at HSBC’s Sydney headquarters on George Street, Sydney is just 500 metres away from Apple’s new Sydney store, but he said he had not entered due to persistent queues.

“I’m blown away every time I walk past that Apple store, and there’s always people queued up outside to get in,” he said. “I haven’t been in there. It’s always too busy.”