Another Blow For BlackBerry As New Zealand Cops Pick iOS Devices

In another setback for BlackBerry’s key government business, the New Zealand police force has chosen iOS devices over smartphones and tablets running competing operating systems. Kiwi cops will be kitted out with iOS devices after spending nearly a year testing iPhones and iPads against models running BlackBerry and Android, reports the National Business Review.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Police Minister Anne Tolley announced that 6,000 frontline officers will receive an iPhone, while 3,900 will also get an iPad, in the initial rollout. The decision came after 100 staff members spent 11 months testing devices.

New Zealand police chief information officer Stephen Crombie said that Apple’s products were chosen because it is easier to upgrade to newer iOS phones and tablets:

“Based on frontline officer feedback from the trial (over 100 staff in four districts trialled smartphones, laptops and tablets over an 11-month period) the preferred devices are the iPhone as smartphone and iPad for the tablet. The approach used to develop the applications means Police can move to other devices with relative ease as technology changes.”

The initial rollout over the next three months will cost $4.3 million NZ, or about $3.75 million USD. In the next 10 years, the program will cost $159 million NZ ($134.7 million USD), but the police claim that the investment will reap productivity benefits of $305 million NZ ($258.5 million USD) over the decade.

The move comes as a chunk of the New Zealand police force switch carriers from Telecom to Vodafone. Vodafone won a 10-year outsourced deal, which represents new business for the company. Crombie told the National Business Review that Telecom’s Gen-i division, which had previously been the force’s sole carrier, will continue to supply mobile services for operational management and administrative staff. Over the next year, however, Crombie said that police will be “working to determine how many of these mobiles will move to the arrangement with Vodafone.”

The New Zealand police force’s decision is yet another setback for BlackBerry in Oceania. Earlier this month, Australia’s Treasury Department said it would replace 250 BlackBerry devices with the iPhone 5 after the Defence Signals Directorate certified iOS for government use. The rollout is expected to be completed by the end of March. The Treasury Department’s chief information officer said the decision was made in spite of BB10′s launch because “BlackBerry has pretty limited capability. With the new one being launched, it’s almost too late. Maybe it’ll catch up, maybe it won’t.”

More government agencies are switching away from BlackBerry devices–something that should worry the company formerly known as Research In Motion if it wants to hold onto its core government business. Last October, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement chose the iPhone as its new mobile platform, with 17,676 ICE employees receiving iPhones instead of BlackBerrys. The agency followed the Federal Air Marshall Service, the Coast Guard, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Transportation Security Administration, the Air Force, and the Federal Aviation Administration as U.S. federal agencies that had either switched away from BlackBerry or started offering their employees alternative devices.

A recent Gartner report showed that in Q4 2012, BlackBerry held just 3.5% of the global market share for smartphones, down from 8.8% in the same period a year earlier.

BlackBerry seems well aware of the problem-earlier this month its vice president of government solutions, Paul Lucier, told Government Technology that BlackBerry’s stringent security standards inadvertently drove customers away.

“They locked [BlackBerry devices] down so much that people were really only using them for email, very basic features. As the BYOD trend started to take off across enterprise, government included, it posed a big challenge. People were comparing a brand-new device on the market that had all the bells and whistles with a locked-down BlackBerry,” Lucier said.

Brazil

Brazil (ⁱ /brəˈzɪl/; Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil^[7][8] (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil,  listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 190 million people.^[9][10] It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) country in the world.^[9]

Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of over 7,491 kilometers (4,655 mi).^[9] It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana,Suriname and the French overseas department of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest byArgentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos form part of Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll,Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz.^[9] It borders with all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile.

Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until 1815, when it was elevated to United Kingdom with Portugal and Algarves. The colonial bond was in fact broken in 1808, when the capital of the Portuguese Kingdom was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after Napoleon invaded Portugal.^[11] The independence from Portugal was achieved in 1822. Initially independent as the Empire of Brazil, the country has been arepublic since 1889, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to 1824, when the first constitution was ratified.^[11] Its currentConstitution defines Brazil as a Federal Republic.^[12] The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564Municipalities.^[12][13]

The Brazilian economy is the world's eighth largest economy by nominal GDP^[14] and the seventh largest by purchasing power parity.^[15] Brazil is one of the world's fastest growing major economies. Economic reforms have given the country new international recognition.^[16] Brazil is a founding member of theUnited Nations, the G20, CPLP, Latin Union, the Organization of Ibero-American States, Mercosul and the Union of South American Nations, and is one of the BRIC Countries. Brazil is also home to a diversity of wildlife, natural environments, and extensive natural resources in a variety of protected habitats

India

India (ⁱ /ˈɪndiə/), conventional long name Republic of India (Hindi: भारत गणराज्य Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also official names of India), is a statelocated in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; Bhutan, the People's Republic of China and Nepal to the northeast; and Bangladesh and Burma to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilization and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history.^[13] Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism—originated here, while Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam arrived in the first millennium CE and shaped the region's diverse culture.^[14] Gradually annexed by theBritish East India Company from the early 18th century and colonised by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence which was marked by non-violent resistance and led by Mahatma Gandhi.

The Indian economy is the world's tenth largest economy by nominal GDP and fourth largest economy by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India has become one of the fastest growing major economies, and is considered a newly industrialized country; however, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, illiteracy, corruption and inadequate public health. A nuclear weapons state and a regional power, it has the third-largest standing army in the world, and ranks tenth in military expenditure among nations.

India is a federal constitutional republic with a parliamentary democracy consisting of 28 states and seven union territories. It is one of the five BRICSnations. India is a pluralistic, multilingual, and multiethnic society. It is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.

Norway

Norway (ⁱ /ˈnɔrweɪ/; Norwegian:  Norge (Bokmål) or  Noreg (Nynorsk)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europeoccupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island (is not subject to the Antarctic Treaty).^{[note 1]} Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) and a population of about 4.9 million.^[6] It is the secondleast densely populated country in Europe. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden; its northernmost region is bordered byFinland to the south and Russia to the east; in its south Norway borders the Skagerrak Strait, across which Denmark is situated. The capital city of Norway isOslo. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords.

Norway is a unitary parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy, with King Harald V as its head of state and Jens Stoltenberg as its prime minister. It is a unitary state with administrative subdivisions on two levels known as counties (fylker) and municipalities (kommuner). The Sámi people have a certain amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament and the Finnmark Act. Although having rejected European Union membership in two referenda, Norway maintains close ties with the union and its member countries, as well as with the United States. Norway remains one of the biggest financial contributors to the United Nations,^[7] and participates with UN forces in international missions, notably in Afghanistan, Kosovo,Sudan and Libya. Norway is a founding member of the United Nations, NATO, the Council of Europe, and the Nordic Council, a member also of theEuropean Economic Area, the WTO, the OECD and is a part of Schengen Area.

Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, fresh water, and hydropower. It is the world's largest producer of oil andnatural gas per capita outside of the Middle East,^[8][9] and the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the Gross domestic product.^[10] The country maintains a Scandinavian welfare model with universal health-care, subsidized higher education, and a comprehensive social security system. From 2001 to 2007,^[2] and then again in 2009 and 2010, Norway had the highest human development in the world.^[11]