Boeing's Black: This Android phone will self

Earlier this month, Boeing submitted details about its new high-end smartphone, simply called 'Black,' to the FCC, along with a request that most of those details be kept secret. The Black (FCC ID H8V-BLK) is an Android phone with a feature for a very specific demographic: it will self-destruct if tampered with.

In a letter to the FCC, Boeing's counsel Bruce Olcott wrote, 'Boeing's Black phone will be sold primarily to government agencies and companies engaged in contractual activities with those agencies that are related to defense and homeland security. The device will be marketed and sold in a manner such that low-level technical and operational information about the product will not be provided to the general public.'

As part of the justification for requesting secrecy, Olcott added that the phone is a 'sealed device' that will be sold with an end-user nondisclosure agreement. 'There are no serviceable parts on Boeing's Black phone, and any attempted servicing or replacing of parts would destroy the product,' Olcott wrote. 'Any attempt to break open the casing of the device would trigger functions that would delete the data and software contained within the device and make the device inoperable.'

The FCC filing did reveal a few things about the Black, however. We know that it has dual SIM cards and is capable of operating on GSM, WCDMA, and LTE networks. It also has a removable battery. It will also have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities (probably to support a smart-card reading sled for PKI logins), as well as an HDMI port, according to a report on Myce.

The Black is a secure device intended for handling sensitive data, so it's not really made to compete with BlackBerry's more standard smartphones for a big chunk of the DOD and the government's general smartphone needs. That's territory for Samsung's KNOX technology. Instead, Black will likely be positioned as a contender for the Defense Information Systems Agency's DoD Mobile Classified Capabilities program, which will provide mobile access to the DOD's SIPRNET classified network and e-mail. It may also be intended as a new offering for the DOD's SME-PED program-which is currently supported by a pair of Windows CE secure handsets from General Dynamics and L3 Communications. And it could potentially be a replacement for the ' Obamaberry '-the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition with custom crypto used by the president and national leadership.