[LINK] "What Will Washington Do Without the BlackBerry?"

[rfmcdonald]

What happened to my country's high-tech future? If Washington D.C. is losing its taste for the blackberry, can the end of Canada's Research in Motion be far off? Mashable's Sophie Quinton reports.

Walk a city block in Washington and you’re sure to see more than one person glued to a BlackBerry. President Obama famously fought to keep his personal BlackBerry after his inauguration. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton uses one, as do many members of Congress.

But Washington’s well-documented BlackBerry addiction is on the wane. For many D.C. denizens, whether or not they’ll switch from BlackBerry to iPhone or Android isn’t a question of if, but when.

“You can play with an Android a lot more,” said Andrew Trembley, a consultant at the World Bank. “I wouldn’t bother with the BlackBerry; they’re business phones.” Good for email and little else.

“I enjoy typing with ease,” said Cammie Flippen, a paralegal at Wiley Ryan and a BlackBerry user. But, she said, “in two months, I’m switching over.”

[. . .]

BlackBerry’s continuing presence in D.C. is largely driven by the federal government’s purchasing decisions. The BlackBerry’s security protections have kept it the phone of choice for federal agencies as well as private-sector companies, such as law firms, that deal with sensitive information.

[. . .]

More than 85% of congressional staffers use a BlackBerry for work, as do about 45% of lobbyists, according to a March survey by the George Washington University Graduate School of Public Management, the Original U.S. Congress Handbook and ORI. More than 1 million government employees in North America use BlackBerry, according to RIM.

“Nobody has a BlackBerry in the private sector,” said Stryk Thomas, a management consultant at Key3 Strategy. Additionally, he said there’s no way he’d consider trading in his iPhone for a BlackBerry.

But BlackBerry’s reign as the government’s PDA of choice may not last forever. The White House’s most recent Digital Government Strategy, released in May, lays out the steps toward security standards for a bring-your-own device policy. That move could erode BlackBerry’s prominence, as more and more people are choosing iPhone and Android devices over BlackBerry for personal use.

The U.S. General Services Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have already started to issue iPhones to some employees, Reuters reported. The GSA is also issuing Android-based devices, and testing a bring-your-own device policy. Both agencies were able to make the switch after they switched to using Google Apps for Government.

Many Washingtonians who have ditched their BlackBerries aren’t looking back.

“I still kind of miss the keyboard,” said Amy Phillips, vice president at Monument Realty. But the iPhone is “so much better,” she said, noting that it’s particularly easy for viewing PDFs and other files that her business needs.

[. . .]
“I think BlackBerries are sort of falling behind,” said Alejandro, a World Bank employee who didn’t want his last name to be used. “Washington is one of the few places they still get used. This is their last market.”