The Australian Department of Treasury has made a move a lot of large organizations have been making in recent years — and that’s giving up their BlackBerry smartphones for an iPhone. Over the next six weeks, it will ditch its existing fleet of devices and replace them with a different kind of fruit, the iPhone 5.
The Treasury has traditionally provided BlackBerry devices to its staff, according to chief information officer Peter Alexander, and it has around 250 of them altogether. But now that its Defense Signals Directorate (DSD) has certified iOS for government use, the department has decided to switch for more capabilities.
“We’re going to use Apple devices as our corporate platform — iPhones and iPads for now,” Alexander told ZDNet. And not even BlackBerry 10, the next-generation BlackBerry platform, could convince them otherwise; Alexander isn’t confident BlackBerry’s attempted comeback will be a successful one.
“BlackBerry has pretty limited capability,” he said. “With the new one being launched, it’s almost too late. Maybe it’ll catch up, maybe it won’t.”
So why didn’t the Treasury choose Android devices instead? Well, it’s not that they’re not as capable as the iPhone, Alexander said, but the Android platform hasn’t been approved by the DSD yet.
“In the coldest and cruelest way to look at it, there was no decision for us, really. We looked at it in terms of usability and functionality, Android phones are perfectly adequate … but it was really a decision we didn’t have much option in.”
The Australian Department of Treasury joins a growing list of organizations that are switching from BlackBerry to the iPhone. Back in July of last year, Australian airline Qantas announced it was doing the same.
Source: ZDNet
