BlackBerry Unveils its Good Technology Integration Strategy: Hurry Up and Wait

Summary Bullets:

• BlackBerry is deliberately choosing a measured pace for its Good integration, eschewing aggressive competitors and patient investors.

• As the future platform combines BES and Good Dynamics, Good for Enterprise customers may find themselves on the outside looking in.

On a call for customers this week, BlackBerry offered a strategic update on its Good Technology acquisition, specifically focusing on the technological synergies between the two product portfolios, and the current and future value proposition for current and new customers. While the event was long on hype and short on technical detail, there were several notable takeaways.

Enterprises Should Not Yet Turn Their Backs on BlackBerry

Gary Barton

Summary Bullets:

• BlackBerry’s travails mean that enterprises should consider preparing a migration strategy to other platforms.
• BlackBerry’s enterprise solutions such as BES 10 and BB IM remain compelling solutions with a future.

What to do with a problem like BlackBerry?  With losses of $965 million (USD) for Q2 2013, revenues down 49% year-over-year and an announcement that 45% of its workforce will be laid off, it seems like the end is nigh for the Canadian firm.  The obvious conclusion is therefore for ICT managers of companies utilising BlackBerry hardware (handsets or servers) to begin working out their migration path to Android, iOS or Windows Mobile.  Similarly, when considering BYOD solutions, there seems no need to make long-term plans for BlackBerry devices.  Certainly, the dominance of Android and iOS-based devices means that these two operating systems should be at the forefront of mobile application design and mobile security policies.  BlackBerry’s future in the mobile device market does indeed seem bleak.

Mobile Operating System Choice

A. Braunberg

Summary Bullets:

• Nobody ever got fired for buying BlackBerrys. Embrace device diversity but incentivize best practices

Anyone old enough to remember the phrase: “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM equipment”? If uttered by an IBM sales person it could be considered classic fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD). But it was based on an industry axiom at the time: IBM hardware was the known quantity and the safe purchase. For a long time, nobody got fired for buying BlackBerry either, but the ‘consumerization of IT’ has thrown those old assumptions out the window and organizations are back to really taking a hard look at the features of each mobile OS and trying to keep the FUD at bay. I sat in a panel at Interop last week that basically asked the question: is it safe to hitch your wagon to any one mobile OS, BlackBerry or otherwise?

Rough Sailing Ahead for Mobile Applications

B. Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

• Mobile device market fragmentation, a continuing problem for application developers.
• App manufactures should adopt a combined Web/native development approach.

These are heady days for IT managers with a hankering for mobility. Over the past two years, the usual impediments to mobilizing the workforce have vanished beneath an avalanche of consumer pressure, technological innovation and corporate acceptance. This is particularly true when it comes to supporting a wide array of devices from Apple, Microsoft, Google, Nokia, RIM and others. Gazing at the myriad devices and plethora of software for those devices currently roaming about the marketplace would lead one to believe that it’s a foregone conclusion that mobility has reached a point where users can bring their device du jour to the workplace. Well, yes, this is true – but that’s really where the trouble begins.