NYPD handcuffed by investment in Microsoft's Windows Phone, now switching to Apple's iPhon...

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in iPhone
The New York Police Department must replace some 36,000 smartphones running Microsoft's defunct Windows Phone platform, and plans to provide its officers with replacement iPhones by the end of the year.




The NYPD's ill-advised investment in Windows Phone, as detailed by the New York Post, lasted just two years. The switch to Apple's iPhone was prompted by the announcement from Microsoft in July that it has terminated support for Windows Phone 8.1.

The 36,000 phones were purchased as part of a $160 million program intended to help modernize New York City's police force with new technology. Officers were equipped with Nokia Lumia 830 and Lumia 640XL smartphones.

It was not indicated which iPhone model, or models, the NYPD plans to switch to, but the Post did indicate that the handsets would be brand new models.




Smartphones have become a crucial tool in law enforcement, with the NYPD using them on the street to receive alerts, search databases, file reports, and even get real-time updates on 911 calls.

The NYPD investment in Windows Phone, first announced in late 2014, was questioned at the time because of Microsoft's small share of the smartphone space. The release of Windows Phone 8.1 failed to turn the tide against the more dominant iPhone and devices running Google's Android.

Microsoft's mobile strategy now revolves largely around apps and services for iOS and Android, offering a good balance for those invested in the company's desktop and cloud ecosystem --but leaving any who invested in Windows Phone, including the NYPD, in the lurch.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 53
    gerardgerard Posts: 83member
    Maybe now law enforcement will appreciate Apple’s penchant of trying to keep the phones as safe as possible. Who knows what would happen if a bad actor was able to access their Officer tools from a lost NYPD Iphone. 
    netmageSpamSandwichjbdragonmacky the mackylostkiwiwatto_cobrachiamagman1979stanthemanlolliver
  • Reply 2 of 53
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Ouch! But why iPhones? Could @gatorguy please explain? Wouldn't Android be a better, more cost effective choice? The NYPD could probably get some really good deals on Samsung knockoffs. Is the NYPD wasting taxpayer money buying overpriced, substandard (as in years behind Android) Apple crap? Just asking. <s>

    I remember many years ago, when my town's local school board was deciding what computers to buy for the district, parents were lobbying Windows PCs because they wanted their children to learn on a "real" computer. The board wouldn't even let the Apple rep give a presentation. When my oldest son entered the University of Illinois as an engineering student he discovered the mathematics lab was full of Macs. 

    My have the times changed.
    edited August 2017 pscooter63dhawkins541jbdragonmacky the mackylostkiwiwatto_cobrachiamagman1979lolliverneil anderson
  • Reply 3 of 53
    red oakred oak Posts: 1,087member
    LOL

    I bet the technology selection group was old school Windows and anti-Apple.   What incompetence.  They should all be fired 
    Muntzretrogustomacky the mackylostkiwiwatto_cobrachiamagman1979entropysneil anderson
  • Reply 4 of 53
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Who makes these kinds of criminally horrible decisions like investing $160,000,000 in windows phone just 2 yrs ago? Unreal. 
    Muntzpscooter63lostkiwiwatto_cobrachiamagman1979lolliver
  • Reply 5 of 53
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    This isn’t new. A friend’s son is a detective in the NYPD. He was issued his first iPhone over a year ago. More recently, he was issued an iPhone 7. He says that he never had a Win Phone.
    randominternetpersonpscooter63Rayz2016lostkiwiwatto_cobrachia
  • Reply 6 of 53
    ph382ph382 Posts: 43member
    I wonder if this will cause Apple to invest extra effort in detecting apps that send out the phone's location ( a la AccuWeather ) ?  That's information that could certainly be misused.
  • Reply 7 of 53
    AF_HittAF_Hitt Posts: 143member
    ph382 said:
    I wonder if this will cause Apple to invest extra effort in detecting apps that send out the phone's location ( a la AccuWeather ) ?  That's information that could certainly be misused.
    If it's anything like the phones they issue us in the military, they will be heavily locked down to only approved, pre-installed apps, and most all of the privacy settings will be strictly locked down as well.
    mike1pscooter63jbdragonlostkiwi
  • Reply 8 of 53
    OMG! Windows Phones. I had no idea the NYPD got stuck with that platform. I'd sure like to know who convinced the NYPD to go with Windows Phones and what was their motive to go with a dying platform. It was probably borne from the wonderful theory that no one ever got fired for choosing Windows. The Big Apple is filled with Apple retail stores and iPhone users so I think the NYPD should definitely go with iPhones.
    macky the mackywatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 53
    lkrupp said:
    Ouch! But why iPhones? Could @gatorguy please explain? Wouldn't Android be a better, more cost effective choice? The NYPD could probably get some really good deals on Samsung knockoffs. Is the NYPD wasting taxpayer money buying overpriced, substandard (as in years behind Android) Apple crap? Just asking. <s>

    I remember many years ago, when my town's local school board was deciding what computers to buy for the district, parents were lobbying Windows PCs because they wanted their children to learn on a "real" computer. The board wouldn't even let the Apple rep give a presentation. When my oldest son entered the University of Illinois as an engineering student he discovered the mathematics lab was full of Macs. 

    My have the times changed.
    I agree. The NYPD could probably buy a half-dozen flagship Android smartphones for the price of one iPhone. Think of the savings. So what if they don't get any updates. No one ever seems to worry about that anyway. The only thing that ever matters when it comes to smartphones is the low, low initial cost. Yeah, Android is taking over the world by storm. Google should be able to suck plenty of information from the NYPD and be able to push lots of ads to officers. /s
    jbdragonmacky the mackywatto_cobramagman1979
  • Reply 10 of 53
    slurpy said:
    Who makes these kinds of criminally horrible decisions like investing $160,000,000 in windows phone just 2 yrs ago? Unreal. 
    This was the kind of crap being spread a few years back to mislead people: http://www.macworld.com/article/1167112/report_windows_phone_will_pass_iphone_by_2016.html That's the whole problem with these criminals lying to investors. Extremely bad advice given with no responsibility taken.
    watto_cobralolliver
  • Reply 11 of 53
    red oak said:
    LOL

    I bet the technology selection group was old school Windows and anti-Apple.   What incompetence.  They should all be fired 
    More like old school kickbacks and bribes...

    watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 53
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    ph382 said:
    I wonder if this will cause Apple to invest extra effort in detecting apps that send out the phone's location ( a la AccuWeather ) ?  That's information that could certainly be misused.
    Mark can’t put unauthorized apps on his NYPD issued phone, which is as it should be.
    chia
  • Reply 13 of 53
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member

    lkrupp said:
    Ouch! But why iPhones? Could @gatorguy please explain? Wouldn't Android be a better, more cost effective choice? The NYPD could probably get some really good deals on Samsung knockoffs. Is the NYPD wasting taxpayer money buying overpriced, substandard (as in years behind Android) Apple crap? Just asking. <s>

    I remember many years ago, when my town's local school board was deciding what computers to buy for the district, parents were lobbying Windows PCs because they wanted their children to learn on a "real" computer. The board wouldn't even let the Apple rep give a presentation. When my oldest son entered the University of Illinois as an engineering student he discovered the mathematics lab was full of Macs. 

    My have the times changed.
    I agree. The NYPD could probably buy a half-dozen flagship Android smartphones for the price of one iPhone. Think of the savings. So what if they don't get any updates. No one ever seems to worry about that anyway. The only thing that ever matters when it comes to smartphones is the low, low initial cost. Yeah, Android is taking over the world by storm. Google should be able to suck plenty of information from the NYPD and be able to push lots of ads to officers. /s
    Well, they could get two flagship Android phones for on iPhone. Let’s not exaggerate.
    lolliver
  • Reply 14 of 53
    geekmeegeekmee Posts: 629member
    "...Let's not exaggerate." Maybe Wall Street should heed that advice.
    watto_cobrachiamagman1979
  • Reply 15 of 53
    markbyrnmarkbyrn Posts: 661member
    So when the NYPD bought the Windows slabs, Mayor Bill de Blasio touted them as a “a huge step into the 21st century."   :D 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 53
    Looks like somebody was incapable of planning for the future. 
    lostkiwiwatto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 53
    neilmneilm Posts: 985member
    Back in the day the saying in corporate was that nobody ever got fired for buying IBM, and then by extension that became applied to Microsoft. But anyone who bought into Windows Phone in this timeframe should have been fired, period. It's been the walking dead for some while now.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 53
    lkrupp said:
    Ouch! But why iPhones? Could @gatorguy please explain? Wouldn't Android be a better, more cost effective choice? The NYPD could probably get some really good deals on Samsung knockoffs. Is the NYPD wasting taxpayer money buying overpriced, substandard (as in years behind Android) Apple crap? Just asking.
    I'd bet whomever is in charge of IT at the NYPD is one of those old "nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft/Intel" enterprise types, which is how they got into this mess in the first place. 

    Once the choice was narrowed to Apple and Android, security concerns probably became the dominant concern. And IBM has been evangelizing pretty heavily on behalf of Apple for "lower lifetime cost-of-ownership" for Macs, so it wouldn't be at all surprising if they had a similar program for iPhones. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 53
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    red oak said:
    LOL

    I bet the technology selection group was old school Windows and anti-Apple.   What incompetence.  They should all be fired 
    More like old school kickbacks and bribes...

    No.
  • Reply 20 of 53
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    No wonder why people mistrust the NYPD.  ;)
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