Photo by erin m

If there’s three easy ways to spot a Hill staffer, it’s these: (1) Nicely dressed, (2) speaks in Hill lingo that’s either indecipherable or mind-numbingly boring to the common man and (3) clings to BlackBerry like their life depended on it. There’s not much anyone can do about the first two, but the third is slowly changing.

Via the National Journal, WAMU reports today that the BlackBerry’s dominance of Capitol Hill is slowly coming to an end as staffers and legislators buy themselves other phones and BlackBerry competitors start providing the type of security that made the Blackberry the phone of choice for most of the government. According to a survey, some 77 percent of Hill staffers have BlackBerries, a decrease from the 93 percent that did in 2009. Additionally, the percentage of staffers with iPhones has jumped from 13 percent in 2009 to 41 percent today.

The National Journal’s Maggie Fox, managing editor for technology and health care, explained the shift:

What is contributing to this shift in mobile devices on the Hill?

“It’s primarily because staffers are going out and buying this phones on their own and so the various government agencies that manage these networks had to accomodate that. Staffers want to use their smart phones. A blackBerry is a secure device, but it’s very nice to be able to browse the internet and play games and do other things that blackberries don’t do.”

Is security one of the issues that has led to the longevity of the BlackBerry?

“That is the main issue there. BlackBerry has its own servers. If you have a BlackBerry account, you control your own servers and email. That has made blackberry the king of Washington for so many years. The President still carries a BlackBerry. But Apple and the makers of other smart phones have quickly caught up and figured out how to make those email connections secure. As they’re doing that, various government agencies are allowing their workers to move over to smart phones if they would like them and even issuing them, especially the iPhone. On the hill, it’s a little slower, as the security is still an issue, but they’re still moving over to these smart phones.”

The survey also found that Facebook remains the most popular social network on the Hill and in the federal government, besting Twitter 84 to 49 percent among Hill staffers and 63 to 24 percent within the executive branch.