US federal agency dropping 17,000 BlackBerrys in favor of iPhones

It’s no secret that Research In Motion, the maker of the fabled BlackBerry, is on the decline.

If falling subscriber numbers last month weren’t bad enough, last week, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) said that it will end its contract with RIM, replacing over 17,000 employees devices with iPhones in a deal worth $2.1 million.

“The RIM technology, however, can no longer meet the mobile technology needs of the agency,” the agency wrote in a 10-page document, adding that “no other company’s products can meet the agency’s needs.”

The agency went on to explain that RIM’s poor performance in the marketplace was a notable reason why it turned away. After all, Android and iOS retain a huge portion of the smartphone OS market share.

“RIM, a distant fourth, is under significant pressure to maintain its dwindling position,” the agency noted. “This directly translates into third-party product vendors and software developers that support the market leaders.”

ICE didn’t even consider Windows Phone 7.5 (or the soon-to-be-released Windows Phone 8), and barely considered RIM—”only RIM’s status as a legacy product in ICE kept it in consideration for further evaluation.”