Samsung Electronics is almost near to closing a deal with the U.S Federal Bureau of Investigation which the company had seen as a potential market for their popular lineup of Galaxy smartphones. If things push through, it would be a complete boost for the Korean manufacturer which has incessantly sought to meet the needs of government agencies and snatch them away from Blackberry, currently the agency’s dominant smartphone distributor.
At present, employees of the FBI, which totals to more than 35,000, are mostly using BlackBerry devices. For now, it is still uncertain whether the agency is planning to replace all their BlackBerry devices with the smartphone lineup of Galaxy or whether it will be using both companies’ hardware.
An FBI spokeswoman has declined for a comment and reasoned out that the selection process of the agency’s new smartphones is simply a part of its active acquisition agenda and any discussions that currently exist are considered as proprietary to the government.
The about-to-be-signed deal was initially reported on Thursday by the Wall Street Journal. The latter has also revealed that Samsung is close to wrapping up an agreement that would enable the company to sell their devices to people that make up the US Navy.
Representatives from both Samsung and BlackBerry refused to give a comment. BlackBerry had quickly reiterated that when it comes to security features, their OS is the best that the market has ever had. Steve Zipperstein, chief legal officer of the Canadian manufacturer, expressed the growing importance of security among mobile devices and thought that the idea of moving from the BlackBerry platform, which he believes as carrying the gold standard in security, is strangely ridiculous.
Samsung has been working overtime to convince corporate clients and government agencies that its long line of Galaxy devices, which run on Google’s Android OS, can definitely meet all their security needs. Furthermore, the South Korean company wishes that by obtaining clearance from Pentagon and finishing the deal with the FBI, they will eventually witness sales boost among security-hungry clients such as bank and law firm employees.
