Pfizer and Pentagon have announced their plans to ditch BlackBerry handset usage by their employees.
BlackBerry has already lost a major part of its market share to competitors and its seems that the Canadian handset maker may also lose two big customers viz. Pfizer and the Department of Defence (DoD).
"This multi-vendor, device-agnostic approach minimizes the impact of (a) single vendor to our current operations," said Lt. Col. Damien Pickart, Pentagon spokesman. "DoD's mobility strategy and commercial mobile device implementation plan includes reliance on multiple vendors to support its mobile communications needs."
BlackBerry handsets have been very well-known in business for their robust security features. As such, big companies previously preferred that its employees use BlackBerry handsets as opposed to handsets made by other vendors. However, with the future of BlackBerry and its services uncertain, Pfizer and Pentagon have started to look for alternatives.
A limited pilot security management system is expected to start by the end of 2013 and it is expected that up to 300,000 government-issued consumer devices will be connected by the end of 2016. The Pentagon is one of the biggest BlackBerry clients and currently uses around 470,000 BlackBerry devices. The Canadian handset maker will have to take swift action before Pentagon drops BlackBerry handsets altogether from its work force.
Pentagon is not the only one planning to divert from BlackBerry. Pfizer, who has over 92,000 employees and is the eighth-biggest employer among U.S. and Western European-based health-care companies, has also issued a note to its employees regarding a switch over to other smartphone vendors.
"In response to declining sales, the company is in a volatile state," per a memo issued by Pfizer to its employees. "We recommend that BlackBerry clients use their BlackBerry devices and plan to migrate to a new device at normal contract expiration."
BlackBerry has a new CEO, John Chen, who recently issued a note to the BlackBerry community to reassure that the company is committed to reclaim its success. Chen also noted that the company is no more up for sale but it will take time before BlackBerry gets success in its plans.
BlackBerry is planning to move its attention from retail consumers and focus more on enterprise customers. However, an end of partnership with Pentagon and Pfizer may affect the company's future plans.
