The Pentagon will still support falling smartphone company RIM, even though last week they announced employee’s will be allowed to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). The Pentagon has supported RIM for sometime now but Pentagon said they will be looking at software that can monitor, manage and enforce security requirements for devices made by Apple and Google Inc. Whoever comees up with a software the Pentagon likes a contract will be offered. Again RIM takes another L.
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) quietly posted its request for proposals on a federal website on October 22, the same day that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency said it would end its contract with RIM in favor of Apple’s iPhone.
Losing some of its Pentagon business to other providers could deal another blow to RIM, which once commanded the lead in the smartphone market but has rapidly lost ground to Apple and Samsung’s line of products as customers abandon its aging BlackBerry devices.
For many years, the Pentagon relied solely on BlackBerry phones because RIM met its tough security requirements, but other companies have been improving security on their devices, and a growing number of military commanders are clamoring for rival devices with bigger touch screens and faster browsers.
[reuters]
This is pretty big. Given how security conscious the military is the fact they thing that BYOD programs can work inside of their security structure is mad props to that growing trend. I’ll be interested to see how this plays out for them, or if they end up going back and trying to save RIM at the last minute after this blows up on them.