RIM has been dealt a further blow with the news of the Pentagon due to move up of to 8 million employees from its BlackBerry devices to Android-powered smartphones and Apple's iPhone.
The Defense Department is planning to hire a contractor to build a system that will both manage and secure at least 162,500 Android devices, in addition to Apple products including the iPhone and iPad. It's possible that the system may be expanded to handle 8 million devices, the department confirmed.
The project is “a significant step towards delivering a secure mobile communications capability’’ to the agency, it said. The Pentagon wishes to gives employees the opportunity to access its network through a broader range of mobile devices so it can “take advantage of the increasing wireless capabilities that exist and that are developing in the marketplace."
The Pentagon’s Defense Information Systems Agency will grant the contract to a single company by April, with bids due by November 27.
Although the Defense Department is not instructing contractors to propose systems that can manage RIM devices, it “desires” a system that can also handle BlackBerry smartphones, in addition to Android and iOS devices.
Last week, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said it will end the contract it holds with RIM, subsequently leading to 17,600 employees moving away from BlackBerry devices to the iPhone. Preceding that was consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton dropping BlackBerry in favor of the iPhone and Android smartphones for about 25,000 employees.
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internetlad Pentagon to Move From BlackBerry to Android
I guess that's a decent move, considering the state RIM is in.
, iPhones
wat? -
acadia11 Dumb , berry is still the most secure of all the mobile os , well get ready to enjoy hackfest. Who made this decision?Reply -
walter87 acadia11Dumb , berry is still the most secure of all the mobile os , well get ready to enjoy hackfest. Who made this decision?Reply
If government emails or documents get leaked or hacked into from iOS or Android...that will likely mean the government will have to reconsider BlackBerry and in the long run potentially waste tax dollars if those platforms prove to be too insecure.
One contract the Pentagon should consider should be BlackBerry Mobile Fusion since it allows any iOS, Android or BB device access to their secure network.
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mynameis1 rim needs to focus on getting software out there or even consider licenseing their fusion software to other platforms.. they should stop the hardware end its too late now, the industry has moved on and they still don't have bb10 out.Reply -
machvelocy acadia11Dumb , berry is still the most secure of all the mobile os , well get ready to enjoy hackfest. Who made this decision?b-b-but they need to spend those taxpayers money anyway...Reply -
compuservant I can understand the move to the iPhone, probably the iPhone 4, it has BBM functionality already and is a closed system. Android is open source that is already rife with malware. I see no sense in the DOD contracting for Android devices.Reply
BTW, did you notice, no one is choosing the W8 phone/platform? Microsoft should start looking for a spot in the trashbin of history, right next to AOL. -
robochump Well iPhone and Androids are from US companies and RIM is Canadian. So makes sense even though they are made in China...heh.Reply -
halcyon If the sprinkle enough $$ on it they can more than secure Android and iOS. I hope it pays off.Reply -
tacobravo So why make the jump to iphones? RIM has much better phones suited for business than little play things like Apple hasReply