Blackberry Has Decided To Open Its Bb 10 OS. Should Customers Be Worried?

BlackBerry has announced that it will let mobile device management companies to manage its devices running BB 10 OS. Citrix, AirWatch and IBM are the first companies that will work with BlackBerry to manage BlackBerry 10 devices.

Why should BlackBerry let others manage its devices?

As far as BlackBerry is concerned, this is a strategic move that provides a flexible and open mobile environment for its customers. BlackBerry has already expanded its BES10 and BBM messenger to include Android and iOS apps. Later this year, BlackBerry is also expected to add support for Windows Phone. BlackBerry believes that its biggest USP will be its ability to support secure mobile communications and collaboration across multiple platforms. In addition, BlackBerry is perhaps the only service provider that provides its customers the freedom to choose between popular policy models like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or Corporate Owned Personally Enabled (COPE).

The open mobile ecosystem that BlackBerry is trying to build with IBM, Citrix and Airwatch will provide companies with more choices in how they should meet the mobility needs of their employees as the need to manage multiple mobile operating systems increases within IT companies. In fact providing a choice of both MDM platforms and devices will benefit everybody.

BlackBerry is much more than a handset provider. The company has got what it takes to be a significant player in the Internet of Things market worth multi-trillion dollars. With this objective, BlackBerry creates and supports flexible environments. It also helps its customers deal with challenges that platform driven mobility systems bring on. BlackBerry wants to lead in applications, Internet of Things and data.

Will this move encourage companies to stop using the BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES10)?

BlackBerry has time and again clarified that their goal is to be the most powerful player in enterprise mobility management. BlackBerry is still the number one multi-platform provider. In fact, BlackBerry has more customers than its top 3 competitors combined. BlackBerry also plans to launch its BES 12 later this year. This will allow BlackBerry to support a range of platforms including iOS, Windows, Android, BlackBerry OS devices and BlackBerry 10. That will effectively make BlackBerry the only company in the world to support the entire mobility management requirements of an organization.

In March 2015, BlackBerry is expected to launch its multi-tenant cloud based version of BES12. This will give BlackBerry more opportunities to get customers and continue their market leading position.

It is true that BlackBerry is offering more choices. However, it is still possible that some enterprises have more security requirements than other enterprises. Enterprises in the regulated sector will prefer to remain end-to-end BlackBerry because of the unparalleled management capabilities and security offered by BlackBerry. The fact that BlackBerry provides the kind of security that no other enterprise mobility service provider can offer is indisputable.

Will this affect customers?

BlackBerry devices managed by its own servers is undoubtedly the most secure devices. This allows BlackBerry to secure the device from end-to-end. However, customers have nothing to worry as the security of a BB 10 device is built into the device platform architecture itself.