Boeing sees profits in secure mobile phone market.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Homeland Security News

* The Boeing Co. is developing a mobile phone based on the Android operating system that will compete with other manufacturers offering highly secure communication devices, company officials said.

Roger Krone, president of Boeing Network and Space Systems, told reporters that this was probably the first time the aerospace and defense industry giant will offer a communication device designed to use cellular networks.

Brian Palma, vice president of the company's secure infrastructure group, said Boeing is near the end of the development cycle and getting ready to launch what he called "the Boeing phone" in late 2012.

Competitors offering similar secure, encrypted devices are charging $15,000 to $20,000 per device and are using proprietary software and hardware, Palma said.

"We are going to drive down towards a lower price point, but ... not a mass market price point," he said referring to iPhones, BlackBerries and other consumer market smartphones.

"We believe that there is significant interest in the defense side as well as the intelligence side and in the commercial world as well," Palma said. The company also sees opportunities for the phone in the first responder market.

Boeing sees a larger business trend where employees once went to work to take advantage of information technology because it was far superior to what they had at home. Nowadays, it is the opposite. The consumer products have outstripped the office IT, and they wonder why their workplace has far less robust computers and phones.

Other vendors are lining up to take advantage of this growing demand. Companies exhibiting at the Milcom conference in Baltimore last year had numerous products on hand to make tablets such as iPads and smartphones more secure for those who use them for official business. Some companies made the...