NEW YORK - JPMorgan Chase will give its investment bankers iPads to provide an additional mobile tool as Apple expands its domain to Wall Street, threatening Research in Motion Ltd. in a market it traditionally dominated. 'We believe there are real benefits in our working environment that can be realized using this device - as well as the personal productivity and enjoyment that come as part of the package,' two managing directors at New York-based JPMorgan said in an e-mail obtained by Bloomberg News. Apple is building on its momentum in the tablet space, leveraging its 95 percent market share to expand from its traditional consumer base into the corporate market as RIM readies a rival device, the BlackBerry PlayBook. The Canadian maker of smartphones is trying to catch up with Apple as banks including Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group unveil applications for the iPad and Citigroup and Bank of America consider letting employees use iPhones instead of Wall Street's 11-year-old device of choice, the BlackBerry. 'Apple represents a clear and present danger for RIM going forward,' said Brian Marshall, an analyst at Gleacher & Co. 'For the first time you have a viable alternative to secure mobile communications and by and large we see people moving away from the BlackBerry platform in droves in favor of the iPhone and the iPad.' JPMorgan, the second-largest U.S. lender by assets behind Bank of America, will distribute iPads free of charge to all associates in its global investment banking division, the Nov. 24 e-mail shows. Employees will get to keep the device as long as they remain at the unit until the pilot program ends on May 1, 2011. Bankers will be able to access e-mails, contacts, calendar and attachments via Microsoft Outlook, as well as have the ability to mark-up and annotate confidential documents and make client presentations, according to the e-mail. They will also be allowed to download applications for personal use. 'There are a variety of ways to leverage the iPad. Some work off-the-shelf whilst others rely on JPMorgan software/security tools,' the managing directors said. 'Depending on its success we will evaluate if we should repeat this one time initiative and/or expand it to others.' JPMorgan spokeswoman Lauren Francis declined to comment. 'Many corporations, including Wall Street, are looking at iPad for business use,' said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Brothers. 'There are two things attracting IT managers to the iPad: it's easy to use and the price is pretty attractive relative to traditional notebooks.' IPad sales jumped 28 percent to 4.19 million units in the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Since the Cupertino, Calif.-based company unveiled the device in April, it contributed $4.96 billion, or almost 14 percent, to Apple's revenue, Bloomberg data show. The cheapest version of the tablet sells for $499, according to Apple's website. Meanwhile, RIM is winning customers for the tablet ahead of its first-quarter debut. Toronto-based insurer Sun Life Financial has agreed to buy as many as 1,000 PlayBooks, and the Canadian banking unit of ING Groep says it will also purchase the device. Apple overtook RIM in the third quarter as the second- biggest smartphone company with 17.4 percent market share behind Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, according to researcher IDC. More than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies are 'deploying or piloting' the iPhone as corporations continue to include the smartphone in their approved device lists, Apple said Oct. 18. Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller declined to comment. Tenille Kennedy, a spokeswoman for Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM, couldn't immediately comment. 'This is an interesting trend that definitely has legs,' Gleacher's Marshall said in a telephone interview. 'As contracts roll out on the BlackBerry we're going to see more companies adopt Apple technology. This is a sign of the times and will continue in the future.' --With assistance from Richard Bravo in New York, Hugo Miller in Toronto and Adam Satariano in San Francisco. 