U.S. Immigration Dumps 17,600 BlackBerrys for iPhones
Follows consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton's decision to drop RIM smartphone in favor of Google and Apple devices.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has confirmed it will end its contract with BlackBerry owner Research In Motion, with the move resulting in 17,600 employees having their BlackBerry devices switched out in favor of the iPhone. The agency said it plans to purchase iPhone units for more than 17,600 employees, equaling a total purchase price of $2.1 million. It stressed that the firm has relied on RIM for eight years, but the financially struggling company "can no longer meet the mobile technology needs of the agency."
ICE analyzed Apple's iOS devices and Google's Android operating system and found that the iPhone offers the best platform because it's not as open as the latter.
Apple's iPhone will be utilized by a "variety of agency personnel, including, but not limited to, Homeland Security Investigations, Enforcement and Removal Operations and Office of the Principal Legal Advisor employees." The agency says iPhone services will allow these individuals to leverage "reliable, mobile technology on a secure and manageable platform" in furtherance of the agency's mission.
Consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton recently confirmed plans to drop BlackBerry and make a transition to iPhone and Android smartphones for around 25,000 employees.

Man this guy is amazingly creative.
Hate to say it but it seems that way. There is very little point to go with blackberry's now days as there seems to ways to make iphones/androids just as secure to my knowledge. And more people understand how to use one so it's less hassle for most employees/people I've seen.
Seriously if there's one thing RIM still has on eveyone else, its security, especially for a branch of law enforcement I kind of figured that would be on the top of their list for features... Guess not...
Just wait until they have to tie the phone in with their business applications such as email. Their IT group is going to have a heart attack trying to manage 25,000 iPhones. With RIM securing (wiping) a lost device is quite literally a couple clicks away. Even better transferring the user's contacts & data is just as easy when you get the new device.... Last time i tried to transfer stuff from one apple device to another I had a nightmare of a time...
And they wont know they have been hacked as they will be bust playing angry birds !
Anyways, I kinda hard to find a logic why they switched?
to follow the trend? it's more safer phone? it's more cheaper phone? or what?
Actually when users configured the e-mail client on the Android to use the Microsoft Exchange it prompts the user a notice to say that the admins will have the ability to wipe your phone if necessary. The user has to agree to it otherwise connection to Exchange will be denied.
I do see this being an option in the Microsoft Exchange console so it's already there. It doesn't wipe the phone but it does remove all traces of e-mails, contacts and etc that is related to exchange.
Wasting taxpayers on money? I would give you a pass as that just being a typo, but given what is wrong with the rest of the post, I doubt it was a typo.
With the US being filled with people like you, it's fucked.
That's less than $120 per iPhone ?
Something must be wrong with these numbers.
Not necessarily, apple may have sold them at cost. (which just goes to show how much of a mark up apple put on their products)