National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is dropping BlackBerries from the roster of supported devices for workers, reports indicate. A memo from CIO Joseph Klimavicz, dated February 3rd, is said to show that BlackBerry support will end after May 12th. Beyond that point, the organization is throwing its weight behind iOS, the minimum standards being iOS 5, an iPhone 4, or an iPad 2. Below is from the memo:
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is dumping RIM’s BlackBerry from its list of officially supported mobile devices, according to a memo sent from the organizations CIO. According to the memo sent by Joseph F. Klimavicz, NOAA Chief Information Officer and Director for High Performance Computing and Communications, support for the BlackBerry will continue until May 12, 2012.
Both iPhones and iPads will eventually be supplied to workers. When that transition might take place is, however, absent from the memo. Also uncertain is which devices NOAA intends to hand out, though with a May deadline the latest options would likely be the iPhone 4S and the iPad 3.
RIM’s BlackBerry platform has been gradually losing traction in terms of corporate support, but is still a mainstay in some businesses and governmental organizations. Much of this can be linked to security, since despite efforts by Apple to improve enterprise support, BlackBerry is often considered more secure.
