BlackBerry's upcoming American launch of the Z10 smartphone on 26 March has received a blow, with reports suggesting one of its biggest customers, the US Department of Defense, is looking to replace staff BlackBerry phones with iPhones and iPads.
According to tech site Electronista, "well placed sources" say that a mobile device testing programme is currently in progress within the Pentagon, which has resulted in a preliminary order of 650,000 Apple products to replace the existing stock of previous generation BlackBerry devices, which are not compatible with the latest BB10 software.
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Currently, 470,000 BlackBerry phones are used by the US Department of Defense, both at the Pentagon and offices across the globe, but sources suggest they'll eventually be replaced by 210,000 iPhones, 200,000 iPods, 120,000 iPads and 100,000 iPad minis.
BlackBerry has slowly been losing favour with US government departments, with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement switching from Blackberry devices to iPhones last year, ending an eight-year partnership with the Canadian firm.
But BlackBerry did receive a recent boost, with an order for one million Z10 smartphones announced last week from an undisclosed customer, the single largest order in the company's history. BlackBerry described the deal as a "tremendous vote of confidence in BlackBerry 10".
BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins recently took a swipe at Apple, suggesting its user interface is five years old and is in need of a refresh.
"The rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don't innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly. The user interface on the iPhone, with all due respect for what this invention was all about, is now five years old," he said.
However, Computing's review of BlackBerry Z10 found that it doesn't do much to differentiate itself from its Apple and Android rivals.
