Following sketchy reports that the U.S. Department of Defense was preparing to purchase a number of iPhones and iPads, while decreasing support for BlackBerry devices, official Department of Defense spokesperson Lt. Col. Damien Pickart has denied the rumor. Speaking with PCMag, Pickart said the report that it is dropping support for BlackBerry is “in error” and pointed to the department’s recently released plan for supporting multiple platforms going forward:
Pickart also confirmed that he is not aware of any plans to purchase large quantities of iOS devices from Apple as claimed in the original report:
The Pentagon already confirmed last month that it plans to open its networks to 100,000 new devices from both Apple and Google by February 2014. At the time, it said the network consisted of mainly non-Apple and Google devices with 470,000 BlackBerrys, 41,000 Apple products, and 8,700 Android devices. Pickart verified to PCMag on Thursday that those numbers remain the same.
So Electronista says it has a source at the U.S. Department of Defense. http://t.co/bQVHukPaGI
We’re all screwed.
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) March 20, 2013
