BlackBerry may find itself facing a whole myriad of troubles in the consumer and business smartphone market, but it seems they still have one extremely loyal and extremely influential user. U.S. President Barack Obama became extremely well-known for relying heavily on his BlackBerry handset during his initial 2008 presidency campaign, and it seems his trusty smartphone has stayed by his side ever since. Now into his second term as U.S. President, Obama has claimed that he would love to switch to an iPhone to handle his mobile needs but is unable to do so due to legitimate security concerns.
Obama was recently speaking at The White House Youth Summit, with the intention of promoting his Affordable Care Act which exists to increase the quality and affordability of health insurance in the United States of America. When conversation took a slight deviation and focused on mobile technology, Obama let it slip that he was unable to use Apple’s iPhone due to “security reasons”. The president himself, and most of his administration for that matter, are extremely keen users of Apple’s iPad, but the fruit company’s smartphone isn’t fit for the president – yet.
The president’s reliance on the powerful security and encryption capabilities of BlackBerry devices shouldn’t really come as a surprise. The two-term president has already been through the process of arguing with his own National Security Agency (NSA) to be allowed to keep his BlackBerry after declaring that the government would have to “pry it out of my hands”. That was back in 2009 when he was initially elected into power, and although times have moved on in the smartphone world, the BlackBerry hardware stills fulfills the president’s needs while keeping his data safe thanks to beefed up security on the device.
Although the iPhone isn’t yet ready to be adopted by famous political leaders, it has been going through a process of change where security is concerned. The integration of Touch ID and additional software based security measures shows that Apple is serious about protecting the sensitive data of its users.
Still, we would imagine that BlackBerry would be extremely keen to keep the president as a loyal user considering marketing experts have valued his “endorsement” of the brand at between $25 and $50 million.
(via: SecurityWeek)
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