BlackBerry no longer Pentagon’s phone of choice

   
The exclusive contract signed between the Pentagon and Blackberry seems to be on the path to demise, after the Pentagon invited companies such as Apple to offer smart-phones to its vast work force.             

This move comes days after another government agency, the US immigration and Customers Enforcement agency, said it was dropping Blackberry in favor of Apple’s smart-phones.                  

For its part, the Defense Department stated that it would continue using Blackberry phones and that several number of RIM devices would remain in use.                   
The Pentagon, however, wants to establish a “multi-vendor environment” while still adhering to “strict security requirements,” he added.                  

The US military and intelligence agencies have long preferred the Blackberry due to security concerns and had worried that Apple, Android and other smart phones lacked sufficient safeguards.                

But the technology has advanced and Pentagon officials said innovative applications available on other smart-phones could be useful for different units or offices.