US Department Of Defense To Finally Open Its Networks To iOS Devices In 2014

In October last year, the U.S. Department of Defense said it had laid out plans to officially use iOS and Android devices within its communications networks for the first time. Now, the Pentagon confirms that it will start opening its networks to said devices in February 2014. According to Bloomberg:

The Pentagon said it wants employees to have the flexibility to use commercial products on its systems, including its classified network for the first time. It plans to create a military mobile applications store and hire a contractor to build a system that may eventually handle as many as 8 million devices.

Of course, this development doesn't sound so good for the already beleaguered BlackBerry, 470,000 of whose devices are being used by the Pentagon. In comparison, only 41,000 Apple products and 8,700 Android devices are currently in use at the Defense Department, many of which are opened to the department's networks for testing purposes only. A couple of years ago, it was reported that the U.S. government as a whole had planned to discard its BlackBerrys in favor of iPhones and replace its laptops with iPads. And earlier this month, the government had thousands of iPads "neutered" for secure use in its agencies.

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