Is this RIM finally focusing on its core strengths? It would seem so as RIM, the makers of the Blackberry smartphones has announced that the it is extending its enterprise services to Android and iOS devices along with their Blackberry phones.
Dubbed the Blackberry Mobile Fusion, it aims to provide the same enterprise mobile solutions such as security and managements on other smartphone devices. With Mobile Fusion, corporations and governments will be able to extend services such as remote administration, remote wipe, application and software management, and connectivity management to more mobile devices.
With all the negative press that RIM is having lately from the recent Blackberry outages and its dwindling market share in the mobile hardware market, this is seen as a goof thing for the company. They are showing acceptance that organizations are shifting to non-Blackberry phones and yet they are still able to leverage their enterprise know-how and still be relevant in the changing mobile market.
This is also a good sign that their messaging solution, BBM (Blackberry Messenger) might see the light of day on other platforms such as Android and iOS to compete with Apple’s iMessage on iOS devices.
Press Release:
Research In Motion introduced BlackBerry Mobile Fusion – the Company’s next-generation enterprise mobility solution and RIM’s entry into the multi-platform Mobile Device Management (MDM) marketplace. Building on years of leading enterprise mobility management solutions from RIM, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will simplify the management of smartphones and tablets running BlackBerry, Google Android and Apple iOS operating systems.
“We are pleased to introduce BlackBerry Mobile Fusion – RIM’s next generation enterprise mobility solution – to make it easier for our business and government customers to manage the diversity of devices in their operations today,” said Alan Panezic, Vice President, Enterprise Product Management and Marketing at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry Mobile Fusion brings together our industry-leading BlackBerry Enterprise Server technology for BlackBerry devices with mobile device management capabilities for iOS and Android devices, all managed from one web-based console. It provides the necessary management capabilities to allow IT departments to confidently oversee the use of both company-owned and employee-owned mobile devices within their organizations.”
RIM is the leading provider of enterprise mobility solutions with over 90 percent of the Fortune 500 provisioning BlackBerry devices today. The enterprise market for smartphones and tablets continues to grow in both the company-provisioned and employee-owned (Bring Your Own Device or BYOD) categories. BYOD in particular has led to an increase in the diversity of mobile devices in use in the enterprise and new challenges for CIOs and IT departments as they struggle to manage and control wireless access to confidential company information on the corporate network. This has resulted in increased demand for mobile device management solutions.
BlackBerry Mobile Fusion brings together the market-leading BlackBerry Enterprise Server (version 5.0.3) for BlackBerry smartphones; new management capabilities for BlackBerry PlayBook tablets built on BlackBerry Enterprise Server technology; and mobile device management for smartphones and tablets running Android and iOS operating systems.
BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will provide the following mobile device management capabilities for all supported mobile devices:
- Asset management
- Configuration management
- Security and policy definition and management
- Secure and protect lost or stolen devices (remote lock, wipe)
- User- and group-based administration
- Multiple device per user capable
- Application and software management
- Connectivity management (Wi-Fi, VPN, certificate)
- Centralized console
- High scalability
BlackBerry smartphones will continue to benefit from the many advantages of the end-to-end BlackBerry solution including the same advanced IT management, security and control available with BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0.3, which is part of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion. These advanced features include BlackBerry Balance technology supporting the use of a single device for both work and personal purposes without compromising the organization’s need to secure, manage and control confidential information; over 500 IT policies; over-the-air app and software installation and management; high availability; and much more. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will also introduce new self-service functionality for employees to secure lost or stolen BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.
BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is currently in early beta testing with select enterprise customers. RIM is now accepting customer nominations for the closed beta program which will start in January, and general availability is expected in late March.
