Research In Motion Ltd (BBRY): How The NSA Scandal Might Actually Help

Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is not exactly making much headway in the smartphone wars among consumers, despite generating some generally positive reviews and buzz about its BlackBerry 10 operating system and its associated devices that have released so far this year (the Z10, Q10 and Q5, with more reportedly on the way). BlackBerry, once the most popular mobile device company in North America just a few short years ago, has always been a favorite of government and enterprise because of its state-of-the-art security that keeps a lot of data, e-mails and messages safe.

Juxtapose that wonderful security reputation with the recent goings-on with the National Security agency and its PRISM online data-gathering program. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) were all implicated in the NSA program – and they all run the three most-popular smartphone operating systems among consumers – iOS, Android and Windows Phone, respectively.  And when you see the U.S. Department of Defense guidelines for smartphone security – the guidelines that determine with smartphones would be allowed to be used by DoD employees and contractors – you can notice one little observation – that clearly being “cool” with a smartphone doesn’t mean being secure. But with this NSA program now out in the open, will having a secure phone now be the cool thing?

Well, let’s just say that one smartphone company was not mentioned in the NSA PRISM program – Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY). But we don’t think that was an accident.

When studying the DoD guidelines and seeing how they would apply to the various smartphones, one can determine pretty quickly that of the current major OSs in the smartphone world, the only phone that doesn’t have to be severely crippled in order to be approved for DoD work is the phone running on Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) BlackBerry OS. The phone that has to be the most crippled? the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone, with any Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOG) Android phone close behind.

How important is smartphone security to you, either professionally or personally? Are you someone who has an iOS or Android phone for personal use and a Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) BlackBerry device for work? Why do you have two different phones, and what would it take for you to utilize just one phone for everything in your life? Give us your thoughts about this in the comments section below.

DISCLOSURE: None