According to the Politico Blog, The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has plans to drop their current smartphone lineup of the BlackBerry for.. yup, you guess it – Apple’s iPhone.
“We’re going to delete the BlackBerry from the mix,” Rick Holgate, ATF’s chief information officer, said in an interview.
The feds are about to ditch an estimated 3,800 BlackBerry smartphones which should be complete in “probably no more than a year,” he said. The source states that more than 60% of the replacement devices will be iPhones.
“The government has been very comfortable with the BlackBerry model for 10 years,” he said. “Now we’re looking to move beyond that
RIM commented and said,
“The company continues to work closely with its more than 1 million government customers in North America who rely on the unmatched security of the BlackBerry platform.”
“Video streaming, GPS capability, capabilities, the camera … a variety of things,” Holgate said. “Yes, these things exist on BlackBerrys, but in terms of ease of use and adaptability of the devices, the iPhones are the more functional and compelling use case.”
So basically, the federal government is willing to take a risk on national security for video streaming and GPS capabilities? Clearly a consumer decision over a business decision. Shame, shame
Via politico