Apple gains momentum in government, while BlackBerry stumbles

Federal agencies are undergoing an internal upheaval that threatens RIM's stranglehold on the government smartphone market. According to an article at the Washington Post, the Obama Administration is relaxing its rules on technology upgrades. Rather than old BlackBerry handsets, the modern government employee is rocking an iPhone and ditching his or her laptop for an iPad.

More often than not, workers use current generation iOS devices at home and despise having to step back in time when they enter the workplace. Rather than put his foot down and force workers to accept devices cherry picked by the government, federal CIO Vivek Kundra has decided to let people use any device they want. In exchange for this freedom, employees must adhere to strict security policies and, in the future, use private government sanctioned app stores.

This program is apparently working as iPad and iPhones are increasingly popular in the government sector. The ATF uses 50 iPads and may soon adopt 50 more. Both the State Department and Congress are slowly adopting iOS devices and using them on a daily basis. Even the VA is opening its doors to the iPad and iPhone as a way to attract new doctors.

[Via Barron's]