iPhone, iPad granted security clearance for Pentagon’s network

The Pentagon aerial shot

It appears that all of that talk regarding iOS devices being close to gaining Pentagon clearance was spot on. Bloomberg is reporting this weekend that the US Department of Defense plans to give Apple security clearance later this week.

As we’ve discussed before, the DoD’s approval would mean a lot for the Cupertino company, who has been trying to get its iPhone and iPad into government buildings, that were once reserved for BlackBerry, for quite some time now…

Bloomberg reports:

“The U.S. Defense Department expects to clear Apple Inc. (AAPL) mobile devices for use on its networks early next week, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.

The move would give Cupertino, California-based Apple the chance to eventually compete for military market share with BlackBerry, the Pentagon’s dominant smartphone supplier, and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), which gained the department’s certification earlier this month.”

As we told you last week, Apple devices just gained FIPS 140-2 certification (Level 1). FIPS stands for Federal Information Processing Standard—a standard developed by the US government for secure networks. So it’s ready to go with the DoD’s blessing.

And there’s a lot riding on that blessing. The approval will open major doors for Apple’s enterprise team to new clients—not just government agencies, but other organizations that require top-notch security like lawyers, financial firms, and more.

But Apple is just one of the companies vying for BlackBerry’s departing customers. Samsung, for its part, has reportedly already received DoD approval on its Galaxy S4. And it’s pushing for further government acceptance with its Knox security software.