Luxury fashion brand drops Samsung Android smartphones in favour of 'higher-security' Apple iPhones

Store also set to roll out iPads in retail outlets

Italian luxury fashion brand Furla has stopped using Samsung smartphones as part of its mobility strategy, opting instead to provide staff with Apple iPhones because they offer a "much higher" degree of security.

That is what Alberto Camerlengo, COO of Furla, told Computing during an interview at the Cegid Connections conference in Berlin, Germany.

The move to iPhones sees staff mobile devices use the same Apple operating system as the iPads which will soon be rolled out to all Furla's shops across the globe.

"Soon we'll be providing all the stores with an iPad in order to not only collect information but also to provide information to the customer," he said. "Our networking is starting to be designed in this way."

"We've just moved from Samsung to Apple for the phone and a lot of the applications are designed in iOS," Camerlengo added, explaining that security was a key part of the decision.

"We would like to marry up the Apple systems because it's much, much better for a company like us. We use a lot of data exchange, so from a security point of view that's much higher," he said.

"And from a customer image it's much higher, because it's very fashionable."

Google is keen to push its Android operating system as one for enterprise use - the firm launched Android for Work last month - despite claims that the devices are much less secure than their Apple counterparts.

However, some firms show a preference for Android devices as an enterprise tool, citing their lower cost as a key factor.

"At the enterprise level, I've been unable to make a business case for Apple when you consider the flexibility and the functionality of the Android platform, along with the price of the Android handsets," Combat Stress CIO Richard Burley previously told Computing.