There's no way Obama's going to give up his BlackBerry; Hollande and Italy's Matteo Renzi prefer the iPhone. But there are also a few who function without a mobile.
The US government has implemented a plan to add new smartphone suppliers, such as Samsung and LG, for members of the executive. Up to this point, Blackberry handsets were used because of their security, in the executive as well as other government institutions, but other manufacturers are being tested to see whether their handsets conform to the government’s needs. But let one thing be clear, there’s one person who’s not participating in the test: Barack Obama, who refuses to replace his Blackberry, even part time.
The president of the United States has been glued to his BlackBerry since before he won the presidency, around 2008, when people were just starting to talk about smartphones. His preferences aren’t strange; the Canadian manufacturer is strongly represented among politicians.
Germany’s prime minister, Angela Merkel is another BlackBerry fan. She currently uses a Z10 model for government business, although she has another mobile, a Nokia 6260, which was the object of spying by the NSA. The mobile of the Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, is also a Z10 and it became famous for the selfie that she, Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron snapped at Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, appears to be an even more hard-core BlackBerry supporter than his fellow politicians. He uses a BlackBerry Bold, a model that is several years old, and its number is known to just a privileged few. He has been seen using an iPhone or a Samsung handset, but those apparently belong to his team.
Presidents with iPhones
Then there are the ones who prefer to use Apple’s star device. Some even approach ‘fanboy’ status, such as Italy’s recently-elected prime minister, Matteo Renzi, who not only uses an iPhone, but is also a devoted Apple user. France’s François Hollande doesn’t go quite so far, but he was never without his iPhone 5, at least until that relationship was broken up by the NSA wiretaps.
In August 2013, the French government required its members to stop using tablets and smartphones to handle government information. The technology that they started to use was the Teorem telephone, manufactured by the French firm Thales, which has an advanced security system and costs between 2,100 and 4,500 euros. It’s still uncertain whether or not they’ll let the president use his beloved iPhone again. It also appears that Mariano Rajoy uses the Apple handset, according to some photos that show the Spanish prime minister talking or pointing something out on the display.
Governing without a mobile
Although it seems strange for a head of government or state not to have a mobile phone, there are still a few who don’t. Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, is proud to say that he hasn’t had a mobile since he took his post in 2006, although he does use an iPad, according to Global News.
Vladimir Putin is another one who doesn’t seem to interested in mobiles, and he’s said several times that he doesn’t have a smartphone because it wouldn’t stop ringing. On the other hand, Russia’s prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev (who served as the president of the country before) is know for his partiality towards Apple products and was one of the first to have an iPhone 4.
