The U.S. Senate is finally replacing BlackBerry devices with iPhones or Samsung smartphones.
The Canadian mobile phone maker has been facing stiff competition from rivals and lost a major chunk of its business to other handset makers.
BlackBerry devices have the reputation of being one of the most secure mobile phones and were used by members of the U.S. Senate for many years.
"If we can secure the device, it makes securing the software and the data management...that much more easier," said John Chen, the CEO of BlackBerry. "This is why all the governments in the major developed countries are using our devices. You can see the heads of state using our devices."
However, BlackBerry's U.S. Senate era is coming to an end as Senate staff will reportedly no longer receive new BlackBerry phones, and Apple or Samsung smartphones may replace them.
A previous report highlighted that BlackBerry will discontinue BlackBerry 10 running devices, which could be a reason for the U.S. Senate to look for alternatives. However, BlackBerry denies such claims and says it will continue support for existing devices.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that the U.S. Senate may consider giving the Samsung Galaxy S6 or iPhone SE to its staff. Android and iOS devices also have a strong security system. Both the operating systems offer data encryption, which is an important aspect of keeping content secured on a device.
Samsung Knox, an enterprise mobile security system, may play an important role in attracting U.S. Senate staff. Knox has multi-layered security to keep the content of a device safe from any hacking attempts.
"Knox Workspace is secured from the boot up. Only the Knox-hardened Android platform protects your infrastructure with multi-level, hardware-to-application security via Trusted Boot and ARM TrustZone-based Integrity Measurement Architecture (TIMA) to keep your business intelligence and network safe from hacking, viruses, and unauthorized access," says Samsung.
Although Samsung may have high security features in its devices, Android operating systems face a lot of attacks from hackers every day. Security firm Duo Labs reported that Samsung devices are one of the safest devices in the smartphone space, that is, if they get security updates quickly.
Apple also claims that iOS is designed in a way that offers users secure usage at all times.
"Worldwide governments have collaborated with Apple and developed guides designed to give instructions and recommendations for maintaining a more secure environment," says Apple.
However, Apple is involved in a heated debate with the FBI over encryption of its iPhones, which may make it difficult for the company to strike a deal with the U.S. Senate.
It remains to be seen which mobile phone maker is able to convince the U.S. Senate with its security features and procure a deal in the near term.
Photo: Ben Stassen | Flickr
