Back in the day, if your company needed you to check email on the go, the IT guy set you up with a BlackBerry. But in what might be the most recent in a series of nails in BlackBerry’s coffin, a new report says more mobile workers now use Apple’s iPhones to keep in touch with the office.

According to the iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report (via the L.A. Times), a mobile employee is simply anyone using laptops, smartphones, cellphones, tablets, etc., for work purposes.

Among smartphones, the iPhone has cornered 45% of the mobile worker market, a whopping 14% ahead of where it was a year ago. Research In Motion’s BlackBerry was top dog last year with 35% of the market, and clocks in at 32% now.

“BlackBerry has not really fallen from the top spot in so much as other smartphones have grown faster,” the report said.

One reason for the shift could be what the LAT calls “the consumerization of IT,” wherein employees aren’t given smartphones by employers, and instead bring in their own phones for work use.

This slip from the top comes after a series of events that could be signaling BlackBerry’s demise, including cutting 2,000 jobs, a massive network outage and Google’s decision to pull its Gmail app from BlackBerry phones.

Previously: BlackBerry maker Will Cut 2,000 Jobs; BlackBerry Outage: Can I Get Reimbursed?; Google to Yank Gmail BlackBerry App

iPhone is top smartphone among mobile workers, report says [L.A. Times]

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