United Arab Emirates (UAE's) followed the path of Bahrain and claimed that Research In Motion's
The UAE's regulatory authority said the device is open to misuse that poses security risks to the country, and it would seek to safeguard its consumers and laws.
BlackBerry was operating "beyond the jurisdiction of national legislation," the UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said in a statement issued on Sunday.
"It is the only device operating in the UAE that immediately exports its data off-shore and is managed by a foreign, commercial organization," the TRA said.
"As a result of how Blackberry data is managed and stored, in their current form, certain Blackberry applications allow people to misuse the service, causing serious social, judicial and national security repercussions," the statement said.
Bahrain in April warned against the use of BlackBerry Messenger software to distribute local news and the UAE appears to have the same concerns and said some Blackberry apps let people cause "serious social, judicial and national security repercussions."
"Like many other countries, we have been working for a long time to resolve these critical issues, with the objective of finding a solution that safeguards our consumers and operates within the boundaries of UAE law," the TRA statement added.
If the UAE government proposed restrictions on Blackberry, it would be an another roadblock for the Canadian company, which is already losing market share to Apple's
For the quarter ended May 31, Canada's Research In Motion said it shipped 11.2 million BlackBerry smartphones, while Apple sold 8.4 million iPhones in its second quarter.
Last week, California-based Apple said that more than 80 percent of the Fortune 100 companies were testing or deploying its iPhone.
RIMM shares closed Friday's regular trading session at C$57.69 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Shares of Apple closed on Friday at $259.94.
International Business Times, The Global Business News Leader
