While some companies will probably take this week’s massive BlackBerry service outage as a sign to finally get their employees some work iPhones (or Androids!), federal agencies are not likely to make the switch anytime soon. For once, this is not a case of bureaucrats choosing to be uncool — they just have to honor the government’s long-term contract with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. Plus, newer smartphones are expensive and lack some of the BlackBerry’s hidden charms (security features, mostly). “They’re tested and tried,” explained one analyst. “The federal government in general is a slow moving animal, and they generally rely on what has been proven.” We like to imagine that she then muttered “to break.” [Politico]
