Bloomberg reported today that yet another government agency will be making the switch from BlackBerry to the iPhone 5. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has announced it will be making the switch. This follows the news that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency would end its contract with RIM, and purchase $2.1 million worth of iPhones.
The agency said in a notice posted to its website that BlackBerrys have been “failing both at inopportune times and at an unacceptable rate” while announcing plans to purchase iPhone 5′s as replacements.
The board, which investigates plane accidents, announced its plan in a document posted to a federal website last week.
While the agency currently only has around 400 employees, this announcement, along with the notice from the U.S. Immigration and Customs agency last month, means that RIM will be losing an additional 17,600 government employees to the iPhone in the near future. Another blow to the already beleaguered company.
The document posted by the Transportation Safety Board said the agency “requires effective, reliable and stable communication capabilities to carry out its primary investigative mission and to ensure employee safety in remote locations.”
RIM however, still seems to be counting on many government customers to upgrade to BlackBerry 10, as last week RIM Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that he still has high hopes for BlackBerry 10 in government. Making a prediction that at least 400,000 government customers would make the upgrade.
