Misfortunes come on wings and depart on foot. This is proving right for Toronto based RIM, makers of Blackberry range of smartphones, which were darling of business customers and government departments for security reasons, few months ago. Now, BlackBerry smartphones have been swept by storm of Android and iPhones.
RIM is facing one problem after another. First, they lost credibility because of disruption in their servers worldwide and then lost patent battle of their operating software, losses incurred on failure of their tablet, which resulted in crashing of their share prices. Their CEO had to leave because of heavy losses suffered by the company.
In another blow for beleaguered company, the US federal government’s main procurement agency is issuing iPhones and Android-based devices to some of its 17,000 workers.While the General Services Administration does not impose its purchasing decisions on other parts of the government, the terms and conditions it negotiates can be used as a blueprint for other agencies.
“We actively seek to be progressive in our adoption of new technologies so that we can learn the lessons which will inform our client and customer agencies as they seek to go down a similar path,” the GSA’s chief information officer, Casey Coleman, told a news agency.
The GSA – which manages $500 billion of government assets including telecom, information technology and real estate – is also testing the use of employees’ personal smartphones and tablets on their secure networks, a popular move for corporations looking to cut costs. Coleman said that BlackBerry remains by far the most used smartphone at GSA, with devices from Apple and those using Google’s Android software accounting for less than 5 percent of the agency’s fleet, which covers the majority of GSA employees.
Coleman said that BlackBerry remains by far the most used smartphone at GSA, with devices from Apple and those using Google’s Android software accounting for less than 5 percent of the agency’s fleet, which covers the majority of GSA employees. The personal smartphone pilot is to supplement rather than replace government-issued devices, she said, and the GSA has no plans to abandon RIM servers, which manage secure BlackBerry traffic. RIM charges a fee for use of its servers and data centers, which compress and encrypt email and other sensitive data.
Another US agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said last week it would ditch the servers that run its BlackBerrys by June as it trimmed costs. Oilfield services company Halliburton plans to switch 4,500 BlackBerry-toting employees to iPhones, saying it’s is better suited to its needs. Several banks have also welcomed BlackBerry rivals.
The days of proprietary operating software are over and RIM should think out of box and as suggested by me few days ago, they should seriously consider offering their solid devices on Android platforms. This is the need of the hour and they can test the water by offering few of their smartphones on Android and if their experiment is successful then they can widen the offerings. Their is no fun in walking on the same road especially if the chosen road cannot take you to your target; it is advisable to change the road.
