In what apparently marks the latest blow for BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM), a few months before its delays-plagued new BlackBerry launch, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has revealed that it intends terminating its contract with RIM for using its BlackBerry handset; and would switch over the Apple iPhone.

In a last week-posted solicitation document, the ICE disclosed that it planning to undertake an expenditure of approximately $1.2 million for purchasing iPhones for over 17,600 of its employees.

About its decision to drop BlackBerry and switch over to the iPhone, the ICE said that though it had been using the RIM device for the last eight years, the "mobile technology needs of the agency" can no longer be fulfilled by RIM.

The ICE also revealed that its decision to go ahead with the Apple iPhone had come after a comprehensive analysis of Apple's iOS-based iPhone and smartphones based on Google's Android operating system. The agency said that it felt that the iPhone services will offer the best technology for the agency, largely due to Apple's stringent controls of the hardware platform and its OS.

Noting that a "variety of agency personnel" - including the staff at Homeland Security Investigations, Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, and Enforcement and Removal Operations - will be using the iPhone, the ICE said: "The iPhone services will allow these individuals to leverage reliable, mobile technology on a secure and manageable platform in furtherance of the agency's mission."