* Aims for leadership role in mobile computing arena
* Launch of BES seen driving enterprise upgrade cycle
* Large banks, law firms, others begin deploying BB10
By Euan Rocha
TORONTO, May 21 (Reuters) – BlackBerry no longer
owns the fast-paced, innovative smartphone world but the
company, whose email-on-your-hip devices once revolutionized the
industry, now aims to run it.
The change in focus was hard to miss at the company’s
well-attended annual conference in Florida last week, even as
news of a new smartphone model and its plans to offer the
popular BlackBerry Messaging (BBM) instant message service on
other platforms grabbed the headlines.
The company, whose BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES)
offering has long allowed customers to manage BlackBerry devices
within corporate or government networks, is now extending that
feature to let customers manage non-BlackBerry devices. It is
also providing security for data regardless of what devices the
customers use.
“The most exciting announcement they made is their strategy
to provide secure infrastructure across devices and secure iOS
and Android devices in addition to BlackBerry devices,” said
Yaacov Cohen, who heads Harmon.ie, a company that gives users
access to corporate collaboration tools such as IBM Connections
and Microsoft Office 365 across a range of operating systems.
Although the move has long been anticipated, the official
launch of BES 10.1 paves the way for enterprise customers to
begin upgrades in the latter half of the year, a development
that might also boost sales for the company’s new line of
Blackberry 10 smartphones.
Because it routes data through proprietary networks rather
than open channels, BlackBerry has long been known among
government agencies and corporations for its strong security
features. Its new one-stop solution keeps it relevant for those
customers even as rivals like Apple Inc and Samsung
Electronics look to make inroads in the domain.
“I look at BlackBerry as a provider of infrastructure for
mobile computing,” Cohen said. “When you look at things from
this angle, given the huge need for secure infrastructure, then
the position of BlackBerry can be one of total leadership,
something similar to what Microsoft achieved during the switch
to personal computing.”
MOBILE COMPUTING FUTURE
At the BlackBerry Live conference in Florida, the company
also laid out a bold vision for the BlackBerry 10 operating
system that powers its new line of devices.
“BlackBerry understands mobile better than anyone else. It’s
in our DNA,” Chief Executive Thorsten Heins told the 5,000 or so
delegates.
“We live and breathe mobile and BlackBerry 10 as a platform
is built for mobile. We’re committed to making BlackBerry 10 the
mobile platform that will take the industry into the new era of
mobile computing.”
The success of this plan, though, depends largely on how
well BlackBerry’s new line of devices are received. Reports on
sales of the new phones, led by the touchscreen Z10, have so far
been mixed with some analysts pointing to strong sales in the
United Kingdom, Canada, and the Middle East, while others point
to a tepid response in the United States. BlackBerry itself has
set its sights on its platform being No. 3 in the market.
Cohen sees this goal, along with the company’s vision on
mobile computing, as being realistic as more and more processing
power gets built into smartphones.
“We are toward the end of the personal computing era and we
are entering the mobile computing era,” he said. “BlackBerry has
an amazing opportunity to actually take a lead role.”
The company has already shown how its BB10 software, whose
QNX core already runs machines as complex as nuclear reactors,
can run mapping, entertainment and other functions in cars.
“As machines, starting with cars, grow increasingly
connected, BlackBerry will become the infrastructure that
securely and reliably manages the connection,” says Scotiabank
analyst Gus Papageorgiou.
ENTERPRISE BUYING IN
Although BlackBerry faces an uphill battle winning consumers
over to its smartphones, companies and government agencies are
already installing the BlackBerry Enterprise Service they need
to run BB10 devices, and developing applications to run on the
platform.
The New York City Department of Information Technology and
Telecommunications last week confirmed it intends to deploy some
2,000 BlackBerry 10 smartphones by this summer, while one of
Canada’s top banks, BMO Financial Group, endorsed
BlackBerry 10 as its platform of choice.
“We’ve got 12,000 plus BES 10 servers already installed and
the curve is starting to ramp up and accelerate,” said Scott
Totzke, BlackBerry’s senior vice president of security.
Some large banks, law firms and other clients are rapidly
deploying the system, said Brian Reed, chief marketing officer
of BoxTone, a firm that helps centralize the IT needs of large
enterprise clients.
BoxTone, which works with BlackBerry and device management
players such as Good Technology, said 90 percent of the roughly
100 of its clients who attended the Florida event had either
installed or were testing BlackBerry’s new BES 10 servers.
“BlackBerry is kind of the standard for mobile security …
and it is viable in the enterprise space,” Reed said. “I think
they are in a great place right now.”
