Yet another US federal agency dumps RIM: NTSB picks Apple over BlackBerry

Research in Motion just can’t catch a break with its troubled BlackBerry smartphone platform.

Electronista reports the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has announced that it plans to replace its BlackBerry smartphones in favour of Apple’s iPhone 5s through 2013.

The agency claims most of the Blackberry smartphones in its service are at least three-years-old and run on the outdated BlackBerry 6 platform. Even if the agency had decided to stick with RIM, it would have needed to replace most of its ageing handsets.

“[Our BlackBerry smartphones have been] failing both at inopportune times and at an unacceptable rate… [to the detriment of the] effective, reliable and stable communication capabilities [NTSB needs] to carry out its primary investigative mission and to ensure employee safety in remote locations,” the agency says.

The NTSB joins a number of major agencies to announce a shift away from the platform in favour of Apple or Android, including the Pentagon, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), as well as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The news comes just days after RIM’s regional senior product manager, Claudio Roselli, gave a 10-minute sneak peek of the company’s forthcoming BlackBerry 10 platform.