ATF Announces Plan to Ditch BlackBerrys for iPhones

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is ditching the BlackBerry in favor of the iPhone, reports POLITICO.

"We're going to delete the BlackBerry from the mix," Rick Holgate, ATF's chief information officer, said in an interview. That move - which includes swapping out about 3,800 BlackBerrys - should be complete in "probably no more than a year," he said. More than 60 percent of the replacement devices are initially slated to be iPhones.

The announcement follows one from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which said it would also replace around 3,000 BlackBerrys with iPhones starting in June.


The ATF plans to start replacing 2,400 BlackBerry devices with iPhones starting in March and has also instituted a pilot program to test iPad use.

"The government has been very comfortable with the BlackBerry model for 10 years," Holgate said. "Now we're looking to move beyond that."

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