“Cops are getting iPhones and iPads as the police force shifts a big chunk of its telco business from Telecom to Vodafone,” Chris Keall reports for The National Business Review. “Just over 6000 frontline police are getting smartphones, Prime Minister John Key, Police Minister Anne Tolley and Police Commissioner Peter Marshall announced today. And of those 6000, 3900 will also get a tablet.”
“The 10-year outsourced deal was won by Vodafone and represents new business for the company,” Keall reports. “The smartphones and tablets will be supplied by Apple.”
Keall reports, “The initial cost of the rollout is $4.3 million over three months, police say. Over the next 10 years, they will spend $159 million in operating expenditure to fund the initiative. Following an 11-month trial involving 100 staff, police claim the investment in technology will provide productivity benefits of $305 million over 10 years.”
“NBR asked NZ Police chief information officer Stephen Crombie why the police had chosen Apple’s iPhone and iPad had been selected over alternatives running Google’s Android software (or indeed Microsoft’s Windows Phone or BlackBerry),” Keall reports. “‘The trial showed the most useful tools for officers were small personal devices (such as a smartphone) for making phone calls or text messaging, accessing email, and accessing information and photo databases, and a larger such as a laptop or tablet for staff who need to do more data entry,’ Mr Crombie said. ‘Based on frontline officer feedback from the trial (over 100 staff in four districts trialled smartphones, laptops and tablets over an 11-month period) the preferred devices are the iPhone as smartphone and iPad for the tablet. The approach used to develop the applications means Police can move to other devices with relative ease as technology changes.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: They tried all the rest and they picked the best.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “James W.” for the heads up.]
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So much for the bittah. It’s great for the New Zealand tix payah.
Crime privintion. Funny accint. Very iffictive.
Sounds like an ad for stone cookware.
Didn’t understand a word you wrote there, but carry on.
No, it sounds like a Pom who settled in the US trying to imitate a Kiwi.
Just listen to the person speaking.
Good idea. You should listen to him. He had some valid points to make about the use of technology by the police.
Not the most riveting orator, is he, but yes, that’s a typical New Zealand accent. For us New Zealanders, the gong for the most awful accent in the whole world goes to… drum roll… Julia Gillard! Prime Minister of Australia!
Just love those tiblits!
Good South African accent – Now try a Kiwi one.
They have indeed “tried all the rest” MDN. Around 15 years ago, the NZ police paid$100,000,000 to IBM for the development of a police intelligence system (INCIS) that didn’t work, and was never completed or delivered. It’s good to see them getting it right this time, and running with Apple technology.
Seems many enterprises were waiting for the release of BB10 to see what it has to offer and subsequently have jumped to the iphone the moment it became obvious BB would be insufficient going forward. BB stocks may have peaked a bit on speculation, but I’m betting BB will take their worst beating yet in the next two quarters as their core users (enterprise devotees) are now beginning to flee en-masse.
Obviously Ballsillie knows a sinking ship when he sees one and sold his shares at the best possible time.