US NOAA ditches BlackBerry, chooses Apple's iPhone and iPad
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is the latest government organization to adopt Apple's iPhone and iPad after ditching Research in Motion's BlackBerry.
A memo sent out by NOAA Chief Information Officer Joseph F. Klimavicz, obtained by Jim Dalrymple of The Loop, reveals that the organization will continue support for the BlackBerry until May 12 of this year. Going forward, workers will be supplied with new iPhones and iPads.
Specifically, the organization will support the iPhone 4 running iOS 5 and up, along with the iPad 2 running iOS 5 and later. The memo was issued on Feb. 3.
Last May, The Washington Post described a trend in the U.S. federal government, in which agencies have been abandoning BlackBerry and turning to the iPhone. In addition, some parts of the government have been eschewing laptop purchases and are instead equipping public employees with iPads.
Apple's gains in the workplace have been in both the public and private sector, and the NOAA switch is yet another example of how RIM continues to lose ground in the corporate world — a market where the BlackBerry once reigned. Earlier this week, AppleInsider exclusively reported that Halliburton, one of the largest energy service corporations in the world, plans to phase out thousands of employee BlackBerrys in favor of the iPhone and Apple's iOS platform.

Halliburton made the decision after conducting "significant research" into both Apple's mobile platform as well as Google's Android mobile operating system. But the company "determined that the iOS platform offered the best capabilities, controls and security for application development."
During Apple's most recent quarterly earnings conference call, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said that "nearly all" of the Fortune 500 now approve and support the iPhone on their company networks.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
PS: Has Android-based devices been picked up by any governments or corporations as their primary OS of choice?
This is not good news RiM. They probably thought even with the iPhone's rise in the consumer market that there Blackberry was still the best option for corporate users.
PS: Has Android-based devices been picked up by any governments or corporations as their primary OS of choice?
I think it means the iPad 3 will be waterproof up to 100m.
Now if my business cards I ordered from Staples that say the word Analyst would show up. . .
Would love to have been a fly on that wall listening-in on NOAA's conversation:
"Let's get rid of Blackberry's. They're a sinking ship."
"Okay, what are our options?"
"Windows 8"?
"No one's buying em, and no one's really making them."
"How's about an Android phone?"
"Everyone's got em, everyone hates em."
"But they're cheaper!"
"Yes, but they end up costing more in lost productivity when they are pwned by malware distributed by an unsecured app market.
"How's about support?"
"We could get the new model when the old one breaks in three months."
"What about OS support?"
"There is none. Each of the gazillion vendors make their own flavor, with inconsistent UI's, with a myriad of different OS levels. They just want you to buy their new model when there's a problem. They essentially forget about you after the purchase."
"Okay, How's about the iPhone?"
"Everyone loves them, they last forever, and it just works. Only the tech-head, geek minorities hate them because they work so well, it essentially eliminates needing one to troubleshoot the device".
"Okay, let's start slow and order 100K units."
This just about sums up what everyone else does. No wonder AAPL is doing so well.
As if millions of fandroids and rim jobs suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
Would love to have been a fly on that wall listening-in on NOAA's conversation:
"Let's get rid of Blackberry's. They're a sinking ship."
"Okay, what are our options?"
"Windows 8"?
"No one's buying em, and no one's really making them."
"How's about an Android phone?"
"Everyone's got em, everyone hates em."
"But they're cheaper!"
"Yes, but they end up costing more in lost productivity when they are pwned by malware distributed by an unsecured app market.
"How's about support?"
"We could get the new model when the old one breaks in three months."
"What about OS support?"
"There is none. Each of the gazillion vendors make their own flavor, with inconsistent UI's, with a myriad of different OS levels. They just want you to buy their new model when there's a problem. They essentially forget about you after the purchase."
"Okay, How's about the iPhone?"
"Everyone loves them, they last forever, and it just works. Only the tech-head, geek minorities hate them because they work so well, it essentially eliminates needing one to troubleshoot the device".
"Okay, let's start slow and order 100K units."
This just about sums up what everyone else does. No wonder AAPL is doing so well.
You forgot:
"But it runs Flash"
"It has a 5" screen"
"It is open"
You forgot:
"But it runs Flash"
"It has a 5" screen"
"It is open"
and a PEN!
I see the circle jerk continues. I hope you all wear gloves.
Can't you at least admit that it's impressive even though you didn't expect the adoption rate for the iPhone and/or iPad would be so fast? You don't have to like something jut because you've acknowledged its success.
PS: Has Android-based devices been picked up by any governments or corporations as their primary OS of choice?
The military is making heavy use of Android including a lot of customization of the OS and the building of actual hardware. This is similar to their use of Linux for FCS. And will probably be about as successful
and a PEN!
And military will choose it cause its more secure than the full of holes iOS
....oh wait, the the military really did choose android? Go figure.
P.S. Does anyone really doubt apple will FOLLOW android makers and slap a big screen in their next device? and seeing as Samsung did 4" screens first wouldn't that be grounds for a lawsuit and injunction?
The military is making heavy use of Android including a lot of customization of the OS and the building of actual hardware. This is similar to their use of Linux for FCS. And will probably be about as successful
I can see Android being used in government programs because it is open source, but I wouldn't call that Android in the way I don't consider the iPod OS to be a Linux machine, despite it using Linux. I'm referring to large groups buying completed consumer HW with Android installed the way they buy iPhones, iPad and Blackberries. I haven't hear of any such stories at this point.
Can't you at least admit that it's impressive even though you didn't expect the adoption rate for the iPhone and/or iPad would be so fast? You don't have to like something jut because you've acknowledged its success.
No it is impressive. And well deserved. The constant bashing of other platforms and their users is what's annoying me.
As if being a "part" of the winning team isn't enough, you have to piss on the competition as well.
It's immature.
As if millions of fandroids and rim jobs suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
Would love to have been a fly on that wall listening-in on NOAA's conversation:
"Let's get rid of Blackberry's. They're a sinking ship."
"Okay, what are our options?"
"Windows 8"?
"No one's buying em, and no one's really making them."
"How's about an Android phone?"
"Everyone's got em, everyone hates em."
"But they're cheaper!"
"Yes, but they end up costing more in lost productivity when they are pwned by malware distributed by an unsecured app market.
"How's about support?"
"We could get the new model when the old one breaks in three months."
"What about OS support?"
"There is none. Each of the gazillion vendors make their own flavor, with inconsistent UI's, with a myriad of different OS levels. They just want you to buy their new model when there's a problem. They essentially forget about you after the purchase."
"Okay, How's about the iPhone?"
"Everyone loves them, they last forever, and it just works. Only the tech-head, geek minorities hate them because they work so well, it essentially eliminates needing one to troubleshoot the device".
"Okay, let's start slow and order 100K units."
This just about sums up what everyone else does. No wonder AAPL is doing so well.
"Windows 8"?
"No one's buying em, and no one's really making them."
WOA... Whoa!
Microsoft Lays Out Plans for Windows on ARM Processors
"Windows 8"?
"No one's buying em, and no one's really making them."
WOA... Whoa!
Microsoft Lays Out Plans for Windows on ARM Processors
Their touchscreen-based UI looks good.
But now government and good many businesses seem to be standardizing on iOS. I guess because the only other real choice (until we see how Windows 8 pans out) is Android, and compared to Android (which isn't really a company but a collection of licensees) Apple is a model of consistency and coherence. The same thing that has been derided in certain quarters as too conservative for the go-go consumer market-- once a year updates, once every two year case redesigns, aggressive curation of the platform-- are exactly what large organizations want and need.
Now obviously Microsoft is an old hand at catering to such organizations, and has a vastly larger installed user base in same than Apple, so they're a bit of a wildcard. But by the time they've got their stuff on the market and it has a chance to be evaluated, it may be too late. Once the federal government has made some choices as to mobile platforms, they're not going to revisit those choices for quite a few years. Ditto large corporations.
If Windows 8 can offer a genuinely seamless experience across platforms, so that I could for instance grab my W8 tablet and work with any and all Office files, with no formatting issues for the round trip, then yeah-- they could certainly shake things up. But I don't get the impression that's actually in the cards, Microsoft's sort of vague hand-waving notwithstanding.
and a PEN!
Ohhh...PEN???
There touchscreen-based UI looks good.
Yes!
All that's left for MS to do is execute!
Yes!
All that's left for MS to do is execute!
They haven't had much success with that in recent years. I like what they've been doing lately and yet I am not compelled to watch their even on the 29th. I just figure I'll happen across it just from reading tech news. That's not a good sign for MS.
No it is impressive. And well deserved. The constant bashing of other platforms and their users is what's annoying me.
As if being a "part" of the winning team isn't enough, you have to piss on the competition as well.
It's immature.
I see your point. I meant to be bashing the ad. Something didn't ring true with a guy coming over to an Apple line and someone being drawn away by a stylus. I just wasn't the target of the ad.