RIM announced BlackBerry 10 on May 1, along with a slew of incentives for developers, but end consumers seem unimpressed. According to a recent survey, they are jumping off the platform and moving to competitors. A recent survey indicated federal managers are moving to Android and iOS.
The survey was conducted by the Government Business Council, which showed shares of managers using BlackBerry devices dropped from 77 percent in August 2009 to below 50 percent in September 2011.
The share of managers using iPhones has tripled since 2009 and is currently 23 percent, with Android taking 25 percent. iPad usage is also increasing and currently sits at 17 percent.
The reason federal managers are moving away from BlackBerry is because of app availability and age. Managers 41-50 years old mainly use iOS devices, while those 40-and-under use Android. 51-to-60 year olds still use BlackBerry devices.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced in February 2012 it would move to iPhones, replacing around 2,000 BlackBerry devices. It also said BlackBerry support would be cut from from May 12 and replaced by the iPhone 4 and iPad 2.
"We're not buying BlackBerry devices. Our intention is to be off BlackBerry by June 1.
"We don't want to be stuck with BlackBerrys. It's not because we don't like BlackBerrys. It's because we want to have other capabilities. [W]e need to reduce our operating costs and the cost to license, operate and manage BlackBerry devices is very high compared to alternatives that support multiple mobile platforms," Stefan Lebb, program manager at NOAA, said.
It's also testing Android devices, but iOS is for the short term at least because it's easiest to get up and running within the company's existing environments.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is moving away from BlackBerry and will replace 3,800 with other operating systems. Sixty percent will be iOS.
