Another U.S. agency dumps BlackBerry; switches over to iPhone 5

Another U.S. agency dumps BlackBerry; switches over to iPhone 5

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has said it is ditching BlackBerry phones, and will be buying the iPhone 5 for its employees. The reason cited for this change is that BlackBerry phones have been “failing both at inopportune times and at an unacceptable rate.” This change has been made formal, since the agency has put this on paper in a government filing last week, according to sources.

The 400-employee strong agency looks after investigations aviation accidents as well as other transportation related disasters. The two service disruptions that BlackBerry suffered this year are being cited as one of the primary reasons, with work being affected and employee security at remote locations being compromised.

This has been a tough year for RIM. Last month, the U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement agency ditched the BlackBerry phone service, and said the phone “can no longer meet the mobile technology needs of the agency.” In addition to that, the U.S. Department of Defense also announced last month that it was ending its exclusive contract with Research in Motion (RIM), and would soon open up a bidding process where other phone manufacturers can participate, including Apple and Google.

This is not good news for RIM just before the launch of the BlackBerry 10 hardware and software. Incidentally, the BB10 platform has already received the FIPS 140-2 certification from the U.S. and Canadian governments deeming it safe for use in secure government workplaces.

For RIM, hopefully, this is will be last of the bad news, as it rests significant hopes on the new BlackBerry 10 platform, and is betting big on most government agencies sticking with RIM and upgrading to the new devices. From what we have heard, the BB10 platform will be initially available with a touchscreen only device (London) and a touch QWERTY combo (London), attempting to offer the option to the user demographic.

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Vishal Mathur

Vishal Mathur

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