US Air Force may buy 18,000 Apple iPads

WASHINGTON: The US Air Force may buy as many as 18,000 iPad2s in what would be one of the military's biggest orders of computer tablets, accelerating Apple's inroads into the federal government. The service's Air Mobility Command plans to issue a request for proposals to buy between 63 and 18,000 "iPad 2, Brand Name or Equal devices" to lighten the load of flight crews, according to a notice posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website.

The goal is to replace the bag of manuals and navigation charts weighing as much as 40 pounds that are carried by pilots and navigators, said Captain Kathleen Ferrero, a spokeswoman for the command.

"The airline industry is way ahead of us on this," she said in a telephone interview. "Most, if not all of the major airliners are already switching to tablets."

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has been eating away at Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion Ltd's market share in the federal government market.

The Department of Veterans Affairs last year announced a plan to let its employees use iPhones and iPads to conduct official work on the agency's network. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week said it would supply employees with iPhones, the latest government organization to drop RIM's BlackBerry.

Other military branches have also begun buying phones and tablets running Apple's iOS and Mountain View, California-based Google's Android operating systems.
The Army has purchased about 1,300 various mobile devices as part of a pilot program called Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications, according to Mike McCarthy, who helps oversee the service's program. About 50 Android-based tablets will accompany troops deploying to Afghanistan this summer, McCarthy said.

RIM's share of the global smartphone market slid to 8.2% in the fourth quarter from 14% a year earlier, while Apple's share rose to 24% from 16% in the same period, according to research firm IDC of Framingham, Massachusetts. Apple led the global tablet market with a 58% share in the fourth quarter, down from 68% in the year-ago period, according to Strategy Analytics, a Boston-based, market- research firm.