Pentagon Announces Switch from BlackBerry to Android, Apple

Has Research in Motion’s BlackBerry (News - Alert) had another nail driven into its coffin? 

Although RIM believes the upcoming release of the BlackBerry 10 will bring the company back to life, there have been recent events that could lead into thinking otherwise. The United States Pentagon has just added to BlackBerry’s woes by switching its employees from BlackBerry to Android and Apple (News - Alert) devices.

The Defense Department has plans to build a system to manage and secure Android smartphones and tablets, in addition to Apple iPhones and iPads. The system will have the capabilities of expanding in size to compensate for eight million users.

The Pentagon wants its employees to be able to use the most current technology available, and developing a more secure system will see that it happens. The system is scheduled to begin development in April.

The latest news from the Pentagon is not the only problem RIM has had to deal with. The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said last week that is was planning on switching from the trusty BlackBerry to the iPhone (News - Alert). That will be a loss of approximately more than 17,000 smartphones for RIM going to boost their rivals at Apple.

That’s not all: the U.S. Customs news comes on the heels of the news that Booz Allen Hamilton (News - Alert) is switching from BlackBerrys to Androids and iPhones, resulting in a loss of another 25,000 units.

The BlackBerry market has dwindled and is failing to keep up with current market leaders, Samsung (News - Alert) and Apple. When BlackBerry joined the tablet war, it had high hopes that its Playbook would bring them closer to rivals. But that hasn’t happened, and the Playbook fell short of expectations.

In what could be a last ditch effort for RIM, the release of BlackBerry 10 models at the end of the year at least offers a glimmer of hope of narrowing the gap between BlackBerrys and the Galaxys or iPhones.