The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is planning to start the process of ditching Research in Motion’s signature BlackBerry wireless phone largely in favor of the iPhone, the agency’s top tech official told POLITICO. “We’re going to delete the BlackBerry from the mix,” Rick Holgate, ATF’s chief information officer, said in an interview.
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.
That’s approximately 3,800 Blackberrys being ditched for iPhones. It’s looking more and more like RIM needs a miracle to stop the bleeding. NOAA is also doing this, and although it seems like a small sample, the problem is not in the numbers, is the trend. More and more government agencies and private enterprises ending support for Blackberry is something we hear about almost every other week.
A pilot involving almost 200 iPads is also wrapping up at the bureau.
I can’t imagine where they got that idea…
