US DOD issuing Samsung and iPhone but not BlackBerry
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But sadly many of the other Alphabet Agencies have switched to other platforms over the last couple of years, even some that you would think that security would be a big issue.... FBI, ICE, Customs, NTSB, ATF. Then you have the DoD that has been testing other devices for a couple of years, in order to replace their BBOS devices. But there have been a number of delays - due to security concerns. But I think the DISA has been able to bring most of the parties together to come up with a centralized EMM and a policy that meets the needs for most branches.03-25-15 01:45 PMLike 0 - The apps you can access, be it custom or from the app store, make other platforms more productive than BlackBerries.
At least if your work consists of more than managing 5 email accounts on a phone.
At least that's the experience I have made in the last few years and what can be observed in enterprises.
Specialised apps, designed to make people more productive, usually achieve that goal.
Since BlackBerry doesn't really have access to those apps....spikesolie and MarsupilamiX like this.03-25-15 03:57 PMLike 2 - Bla1zeCB OGDISA | Mobility | Secure Unclassified Mobile Devices and Wireless Services
I posted this the other day somewhere.... DISA seems to be the one making most of the decisions on Mobility for the DoD (not all the branches are one board yet). But it is true they don't list BlackBerry devices among their Approve Mobile Devices.
But if you read some of their articles they do mention BlackBerry a number of times - not sure if that is for legacy devices or maybe at one point they planned to use BB10. Chen might not be telling everyone what his plan is for hardware, but he might be force to tell some key users so they can make long term plans. Or maybe due to the uncertainty of the last couple of years, BlackBerry was just written off until they prove they are here to stay???
Did see a report where they are working on a Top-Secret capable voice pilot program... wonder if Secusmart is involved in that?MarsupilamiX likes this.03-25-15 07:37 PMLike 1 - As an aside on trips to DC and in more 'sensitive' positions I've still mostly seen BlackBerry, but all BB7 and that could just be a time thing --- the shift here is just happening now. My current job deals with personnel admin so there is very little sensitive or classified information.
Posted via CB1003-26-15 12:26 AMLike 0 - Context matters, and there are definite gray areas. I can't purport to be an expert on information security, but I do know that some personnel have classified data on their mobile devices. Whether there are courier cards involved or another system that applies I am not sure.
Blaize, I accept your point regarding the title. The implication is more sweeping than the reality. Having said that, the trend is troubling. I hope this is still just the lingering impact of purchasing decisions that were made when BlackBerry was assumed to be going out of business back in late 2013.
Posted via CB1003-26-15 01:04 AMLike 0 -
Definitely agree on the complementing part (I'm one of the BB10 purists. No Android apps on my BlackBerry please, and IT wouldn't endorse Sideloading anyhow)
I'll buy the Slider next, if the specs are acceptable and an iPhone 6+S.
I also love the HUB and peek on my BlackBerry. It's something that truly makes me more productive, just like the business apps I use regularly.
It's interesting for me, to see that I am actually someone who prefers a 2 phone paradigm.
I always thought that I wanted only one phone (with 2 numbers though), but the longer I have used all of the platforms, the more obvious it became to me, that each platform excels somewhere else.
And the way I use my phones is very diverse, thus 2 phones make sense for me.
Is the majority of BlackBerry devices composed of BBOS phones, in all of these agencies/departments/ministries?
Or has there already been an upgrade movement to BB10?Last edited by MarsupilamiX; 03-26-15 at 02:14 AM.
03-26-15 02:04 AMLike 0 -
I have another question though, since it's kinda hard for me to find reliable data, concerning that one point:
Is the majority of BlackBerry devices composed of BBOS phones, in all of these agencies/departments/ministries?
Or has there already been an upgrade movement to BB10?
IIRC, one of the people involved in that process (Hi Q ) had no success in pushing BB10 in her department, and ultimately left their post.
AFAIK, BBOS still rules in that space, but I'd be interested to hear if BB10 is making in-roads. Though, if it's not an available upgrade option, I don't see how it can.Last edited by JeepBB; 03-26-15 at 07:10 AM.
03-26-15 06:57 AMLike 0 - A neighbor of mine is an engineer on an Air Force base and recently had his Bold 9900 replaced with an iPhone 5S. He says the reaction to the change has been overwhelmingly positive among his coworkers, and he's pretty happy with it, himself.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkMarsupilamiX likes this.03-26-15 08:08 AMLike 1 - A neighbor of mine is an engineer on an Air Force base and recently had his Bold 9900 replaced with an iPhone 5S. He says the reaction to the change has been overwhelmingly positive among his coworkers, and he's pretty happy with it, himself.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Posted via CB10MarsupilamiX likes this.03-26-15 08:11 AMLike 1 -
It's interesting for me, to see that I am actually someone who prefers a 2 phone paradigm.
I always thought that I wanted only one phone (with 2 numbers though), but the longer I have used all of the platforms, the more obvious it became to me, that each platform excels somewhere else.
And the way I use my phones is very diverse, thus 2 phones make sense for me.
I have another question though, since it's kinda hard for me to find reliable data, concerning that one point:
Is the majority of BlackBerry devices composed of BBOS phones, in all of these agencies/departments/ministries?
Or has there already been an upgrade movement to BB10?
I prefer a BlackBerry phone, and an Android tablet. I see a lot of business professionals in the US with a workphone and "play" tablet. Also iOS is less frustrating on a bigger screen, and utilizes the apps. Phablets aren't for me, but they are catching. Even then you see a lot of people still carry a second device.
I am also interested to know if BlackBerry is officially being used by the US government to replace BBOS devices. Seems like the whole IT industry is reacting on pre-Chen BlackBerry statements. We may only see the results of Chen's work a year from now. I'm hopeful that's not too late.
Q10 MarsupilamiX likes this.03-26-15 09:27 AMLike 1 - I've found the two device paradigm is a reality as well. The Passport came close for me to combine into a All in One device, but I don't think there is a perfect device yet. I'm also not sure there is anyone trying to develop that device other than BlackBerry and their 2 sim technology.
I prefer a BlackBerry phone, and an Android tablet. I see a lot of business professionals in the US with a workphone and "play" tablet. Also iOS is less frustrating on a bigger screen, and utilizes the apps. Phablets aren't for me, but they are catching. Even then you see a lot of people still carry a second device.
I am also interested to know if BlackBerry is officially being used by the US government to replace BBOS devices. Seems like the whole IT industry is reacting on pre-Chen BlackBerry statements. We may only see the results of Chen's work a year from now. I'm hopeful that's not too late.
Q10
I haven't heard of ANY large roll outs of BB10 in the US. Most of the reports are from "polls" (for what they are worth) that seem to indicate that BlackBerry and even BES are not even being considered in future plans. Which does seem to line up with what I posted above about the DISA. Or we get the "news" every now and then of some major corporation of agency moving to another platform.
If you know of something more positive.. please share it, because I really get the feeling that everyone is in the process of moving on - including Chen. It seems to me that his working with Samsung to better secure KNOX is only going to lead to Samsung selling more phones to customers that once bought BlackBerries (like the DoD).JeepBB likes this.03-26-15 11:39 AMLike 1 - Do you have a link to some articles that indicate that the IT Industry is reacting to BlackBerry in a positive way now....
I haven't heard of ANY large roll outs of BB10 in the US. Most of the reports are from "polls" (for what they are worth) that seem to indicate that BlackBerry and even BES are not even being considered in future plans. Which does seem to line up with what I posted above about the DISA. Or we get the "news" every now and then of some major corporation of agency moving to another platform.
If you know of something more positive.. please share it, because I really get the feeling that everyone is in the process of moving on - including Chen. It seems to me that his working with Samsung to better secure KNOX is only going to lead to Samsung selling more phones to customers that once bought BlackBerries (like the DoD).JeepBB likes this.03-26-15 02:56 PMLike 1 - I've done a fair amount of digging just by asking people I know at various organizations and have been unable to find any cases of BB10 adoption. I do remember reading a while back about congressional staffers and others on Capitol Hill using BB10 devices - I'll see if I can't dig up an old link. I think there is still a huge opportunity for sales to the public sector for BlackBerry, but the window is narrowing and will shut eventually.
Posted via CB1003-26-15 02:57 PMLike 0 - I've done a fair amount of digging just by asking people I know at various organizations and have been unable to find any cases of BB10 adoption. I do remember reading a while back about congressional staffers and others on Capitol Hill using BB10 devices - I'll see if I can't dig up an old link. I think there is still a huge opportunity for sales to the public sector for BlackBerry, but the window is narrowing and will shut eventually.
Posted via CB10
BlackBerry was popular back in the day because, frankly, they were one of the only smartphone OEMs around. They catered to business users and the average user saw what they could do and said "hey, I want to have email on my phone, too", so they got a BlackBerry.
But the market has changed drastically from those days, as well. Back then, the majority of people who had mobile phones did not have smartphones, they had feature phones or basic cell phones. Smartphones were the exception, not the rule.JeepBB and MarsupilamiX like this.03-26-15 03:09 PMLike 2 - In retrospect, I think the opportunity to increase BB10 sales to the public sector has already passed. And there's a strong possibility there never was an opportunity in the first place, because BlackBerry's strengths do not cater to the average smartphone user and never have. The Z10 was their biggest and best opportunity, and they blew it. I seriously doubt such an opportunity will come again.
BlackBerry was popular back in the day because, frankly, they were one of the only smartphone OEMs around. They catered to business users and the average user saw what they could do and said "hey, I want to have email on my phone, too", so they got a BlackBerry.
But the market has changed drastically from those days, as well. Back then, the majority of people who had mobile phones did not have smartphones, they had feature phones or basic cell phones. Smartphones were the exception, not the rule.anon(6038817) likes this.03-26-15 03:29 PMLike 1 - Ah, that takes me back.
Such a shame the "RIMpire strikes back!" quips from headline writers had to stop when BB changed their name. Though I'm sure the "6,000 RIM Jobs" headline is probably best forgotten.MarsupilamiX likes this.03-26-15 03:50 PMLike 1 - In retrospect, I think the opportunity to increase BB10 sales to the public sector has already passed. And there's a strong possibility there never was an opportunity in the first place, because BlackBerry's strengths do not cater to the average smartphone user and never have. The Z10 was their biggest and best opportunity, and they blew it. I seriously doubt such an opportunity will come again.
BlackBerry was popular back in the day because, frankly, they were one of the only smartphone OEMs around. They catered to business users and the average user saw what they could do and said "hey, I want to have email on my phone, too", so they got a BlackBerry.
But the market has changed drastically from those days, as well. Back then, the majority of people who had mobile phones did not have smartphones, they had feature phones or basic cell phones. Smartphones were the exception, not the rule.
BlackBerry wasn't the only smartphone back in the day. But they were the best at doing instant email and could last all day without the battery dying - most Palm, Windows and Symbian devices couldn't do that. Once everyone had a form of push email with good battery life, plus a great browser and other features. BlackBerry lost their edge and started falling behind. BB10 is a great OS, but sadly it is about four years too late to the party. Today if you don't have developer support, you aren't going to have a product that people will want to use.
While I think BlackBerry has a great product for enterprise with BB10 and BES... I think the delays in the releasing of BB10 lead to some existing customers looking to see what else was out there - and there was a lot of "demand" from end users for the iPhone. Then the whole "For Sale" fiasco had to have cause some that were still in a wait and see mode to just write them off and move forward with other options. I think some here don't realise how much money and time is involved in these decision, and that if you doubt a vendor is going to be around... you just can't include them in your long term plans. Much of what the Government and Enterprise is implementing today... might have been started one or two years ago. Long before Chen started his turnaround plan. Stability is just as important as developer support, hardware or pricing - and right now no one really knows what or where BlackBerry will be in a few years.03-26-15 03:53 PMLike 3 - Context matters, and there are definite gray areas. I can't purport to be an expert on information security, but I do know that some personnel have classified data on their mobile devices. Whether there are courier cards involved or another system that applies I am not sure.
Blaize, I accept your point regarding the title. The implication is more sweeping than the reality. Having said that, the trend is troubling. I hope this is still just the lingering impact of purchasing decisions that were made when BlackBerry was assumed to be going out of business back in late 2013.
Posted via CB10
If the topic is sensitive but unclassified (or FOUO or other aliases to that these days), anything FIPS certified should be fine if being used in an official capacity, right?
This seems to come up every now and then, much like Bigfoot and UFOs. Whenever I try to track down someone who is actually using a blackberry to carry classified data I can never find anything about it, but there always seems to be someone who knows of someone who has heard of a program where someone was once meeting with someone who saw someone doing it.
To my relief, my career has moved on and I don't really care about it anymore aside from finding out if it was myth or there was indeed some way of being able to store and transmit S// or TS// via blackberry. It would have made things much easier if there had been.MarsupilamiX likes this.03-26-15 04:19 PMLike 1 - You could be right about the opportunity having passed. In security conscious agencies I think that there is still real potential for BlackBerry to achieve a couple hundred thousand sales or so a year. It could be overly optimistic, but I don't think that it is unreasonably so. That is a far cry from the contract size if they were servicing the full hydra that is the federal government, but it would still move the needle some for BlackBerry hardware sales.
Posted via CB1003-27-15 12:41 AMLike 0 - Do you have a link to some articles that indicate that the IT Industry is reacting to BlackBerry in a positive way now....
If you know of something more positive.. please share it, because I really get the feeling that everyone is in the process of moving on - including Chen. It seems to me that his working with Samsung to better secure KNOX is only going to lead to Samsung selling more phones to customers that once bought BlackBerries (like the DoD).
I guess it's hopeful that the DoD CIO mentions rolling out Z30s as an option and "just getting ready" Fall of 2014.
Here is the video of Halvorsen's Keynote:
His timeline surprised me, and I found his App stance (around the 20" mark) mildly familiar. It wouldn't surprise me if Chen has a similar timeline for BlackBerry.
My earlier comments were better written later in this thread. The IT industry moves slower than what we think it does, and may still be reacting to decisions based on rumors of a nearly dead BlackBerry under the Thor regime. Chen has a big hole to dig out of, and we may not see the big results of his leadership for years. BlackBerry may be 2 years too late, but I think Chen is doing the right move by bringing the product cross-platform. That way he may be ready to push BlackBerry hardware in the next 2 year cycle when all those iPhone 5s or 6s need replacement. This round is over, but he's making sure BlackBerry is in the fight next round. In it for the long game. We can all speculate what BlackBerry 10 devices look like 2016, and how much Samsung they have in them. Right now I think a hybrid will be the only real chance for a Z30 successor.
Till then let the Government sector use their new smartphones and let's hope BlackBerry has a place securing them. The iPhone is a great product, but I think objective CIOs will see the limitations. May just take them 2 years to react.
Q10 on 10.3.1.2582 Last edited by Sulaco757; 03-27-15 at 02:42 AM.
03-27-15 01:35 AMLike 0 - Yeah. I think we all know that classified data is on mobile devices, but not secret or top secret. I think there is some possibility that some very specific users might have secret data on a blackberry (obama?), but it not widespread and no one has ever confirmed it.
Posted via CB1003-27-15 02:20 AMLike 0
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