This month, the Congress of the United States of America decided to stop using Blackberry as its exclusive smartphone provider. Instead, its staff will be able to choose between a Samsung Galaxy 6S and an iPhone SE. A memorandum was issued to all the members of the entity including Administrative Managers, Chief Clerks, and System Administrators.
According to the document, the decision was taken after the tech company announced AT&T that the production of all Blackberry PS 10 models was going to stop, but according to inside sources, and the company’s plans, that is not the case. In fact, Blackberry announced it is working with three new models that will support its 10 OS.
In spite of this, the congress officially cut ties with the company and will instead rely on Samsung and Apple as providers. The governmental entity is going to issue its remaining stock and purchase the last pack for guarantee trades and other similar cases.
“BlackBerry informed Verizon and AT&T that production of all BlackBerry OS 10 devices (Q10, Z10, Z30, Passport, and Classic) has been discontinued. Future carrier order fulfillment will not be guaranteed due to limited remaining stock,” the memo continues “Once we have exhausted our current in-house stock, new device procurements will be limited, while supplies last, to warranty exchanges only.”
Blackberry holds a lot of governmental contracts
At #BlackBerry, security is what drives us – it’s in our DNA. Watch the video: https://t.co/OSItLw1CZb
— BlackBerry (@BlackBerry) July 1, 2016
The company has always been famous for its focus on security, and many organizations around the world have noticed it. The company boasts of exclusive deals with 16 out of 20 countries that form the G20 block, and it has more than 70 security certificates, some of them issued by intelligence agencies. In fact, Blackberry 10 is the only OS officially used by the members of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Blackberry Messenger (BMM) has always been famous for its security, and the company is making it available on Android and iOS. The move is a result of the company’s new “cross-platform” project. Blackberry’s chief executive officer, John Chen, said since the enterprise is much more than smartphones, its future was working on multi-platform solutions.
Blackberry 10 is alive and kicking
#BlackBerry Dropped by U.S. Senate in Favor of #Android and #Apple Devices – CDA News https://t.co/y9ZZWCNfld
— Mathew Blanchfield (@MDBlanchfield) July 4, 2016
The confusion might be attributed to the organization’s last smartphone. When Blackberry announced its “Priv” was going to support Android, a lot of people thought the company was giving up on its own OS. In fact, it is well known that the smartphone market is currently dominated by Samsung, Apple and at some level, Huawei which makes a lot of people believe Blackberry is looking for a way out the smartphone market. Yet, the directors of the company say otherwise.
“Despite my best efforts to tell the world I’m a lot more than just a smartphone company, every question I ever get is about phones,” Mr. Chen told the press in June.
Blackberry 10 is one of the most popular OS among government agencies around the world, and the developers are still working on it, not only for security updates, but for future improvements. As a matter of fact, the new 10.3.3 version is scheduled for next month. It seems like the hardware is not the primary focus of the company, and it works more like an icebreaker for public contracts that also keeps the general customer from forgetting about Blackberry.
As a curious fact, a lot of people keep using their old smartphones because they prefer the classic miniature keyboard. The company understands this which is why one of the three new models the developers are working on is going to have the emblematic keyboard.
Source: CrackBerry