Barack Obama allowed to keep his BlackBerry

Posted by David Walker on Thu 22 Jan 2009

But only for pushing his personal email

Arguably the most famous BlackBerry owner on the planet, Barack Obama was looking at being forced to ditch his favoured smartphone because of 'security' issues. Good news for the new President, he's been told in the last day by the White House that he can keep it.

Well, sort of. Mr O. can still amuse himself with all that push email and QWERTY goodness, but only for 'personal' use. Which means he can presumably email his mates, Twitter away and check out T3.com, but can't do instant messaging with Brown, Putin or Hilary Clinton. At least, not on a BlackBerry.

For business use, he's stuck with a Sectera Edge. No, we're not overly familiar with it either, but we do know it's a chunky/ugly military-approved handset that makes calls over a secured US government network, as well as offering secure web and email access. It's also a tough cookie, strong enough to be used in a combat environment.

Still, it's something of a victory for Obama and without doubt, 'money can't buy' marketing for BlackBerry maker RIM. Now...does anyone know his BB messager PIN?

Link: RIM (via Boy Genius Report)