While its share of the U.S. consumer market continues to dwindle, Research In Motion Ltd. is shoring up its status as a key supplier of secure wireless technology to Washington.

RIM says the U.S. government has granted the BlackBerry Smart Card Reader advanced level security certification for use by federal employees and contractors, a move that follows Washington’s certification of RIM’s PlayBook tablet PC early this year.

Waterloo-based RIM said the reader, which allows federal employees secure access to computers and BlackBerrys, has won level 3 certification, the highest clearance granted any wireless smart card reader.

The RIM reader works with personal identification cards issued by government or other high-security organizations as an authentication device for access to desktop computers and BlackBerry smartphones. The PCs and phones automatically lock when the user’s smart card is not nearby.

The certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology also verifies advanced security features of the reader itself, such as tamper evidence and self-destruction of critical security parameters if the device is hacked.

RIM said the cards support security programs, including the U.S. Department of Defense’s Common Access Card program and the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12.

RIM has been defending its position in the business and government markets for encrypted digital devices, announcing in January that the PlayBook was the first tablet certified for deployment within U.S. federal government agencies.

But it is doing so while its share of the consumer market for smartphone and other devices continues to shrink in the United States, a decline that has forced the company to reduce revenue and profit expectations for 2012.

RIM announced five smartphones this month using its BlackBerry 7 operating system as it attempts to reverse the consumer market slide. It has scheduled an announcement Tuesday in London, where it may officially debut the new BlackBerry Curve 9360 and 9370 devices, which also use the 07 platform.

The event might also see release of the redesigned version of the BlackBerry App World store called App World 3.0, possibly with a new music streaming service.

Data released Monday by market research firm The NPD Group, meanwhile, showed Google Inc.’s Android operating system solidifying its hold on the U.S. smartphone sector, largely at RIM’s expense.

The group’s latest data shows 52 per cent of smartphones shipped in the U.S. in the second quarter were running Android software, up 19 per cent year over year.

Apple’s operating system claimed a 29 per cent share, way up from 7 per cent a year ago. The BlackBerry operating system’s market share fell to 11 per cent from 28 per cent.

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