USAF To Ditch BlackBerry For iPhones

Less than a decade ago, BlackBerry was considered to be the darlings of the mobile industry when it came to devices that were widely embraced by corporations and governments. This is thanks to BES which allowed IT admins to remotely control and monitor devices, as well as the fact that BlackBerry offered up encryption to help protect messages and emails, both sent and received. Unfortunately due to many contributing factors, BlackBerry did not survive the onslaught of iPhone and Android devices, leading to many companies and governments dropping their BlackBerry contracts in favor of BYOD policies. The latest is the US Air Force who has recently announced that they will be replacing 5,000 of its existing BlackBerry devices with iPhones.

According to Defense News, the Air Force will eventually require all mobile users to trade in their BlackBerry handsets for iPhones or other approved smartphones and tablets. In a statement made by Brig. Gen. Kevin Wooton, communications director for Air Force Space Command, “In order to keep costs down and save on network resources, BlackBerrys will be turned in and shut off once the user is transitioned to an iOS device.” It should be noted that this move will be done by the US Air Force and might not necessarily apply to the US military in general, so perhaps there might still be hope for BlackBerry in the remaining departments, unless they were to follow in the footsteps of the US Air Force.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: BlackBerry