US federal agency to test RIM's BlackBerry 10
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), will early next year begin a pilot program on RIM's new line of BlackBerry 10 smartphones and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES 10), which allows corporations and government users to run the new devices on their networks, a RIM spokeswoman said late on Wednesday.
The news, which comes just as shares of the embattled company rallied to their highest close in seven months, signals that RIM's BlackBerry 10 platform is gaining some traction ahead of its official launch next month.
RIM, a one-time pioneer in the smartphone industry, has lost market share in recent years to the iPhone and devices powered by Google Inc's market-leading Android operating system, even among the business audience who once used BlackBerry devices exclusively.
Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM is now seeking to persuade both corporations and government users to stick with its smartphones, which have long been valued for their strong security features. It promises that its new line of devices, which will be powered by the BlackBerry 10 operating system, will be both smoother and faster than previous BlackBerry phones.
RIM is betting that these new devices - to be launched on Jan. 30 - will revive its fortunes. But that may well depend to a large extent on the response
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