Now with Android, iOS, and BYOD everywhere the market for MDM offerings expanded. Gartner publishes a magic quadrant for MDM and products like Afaria, Airwatch, and Zenprise have become an important part of an IT departments arsenal. In the past the white collar devices where covered by the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) and companies like Motorola provided MDM capabilities for their own devices.
As Research In Motion (RIM) has now announced BES10 with MDM support for iOS and Android will they become the new king (again) of MDM? They still have a wide install base (albeit much smaller) running existing BES. Will we see RIM topping the Gartner quadrant anytime soon? I think much rides on the adoption of their new devices and how aggressive they are in selling and marketing their new BES.
The BYOD trend could work against Blackberry because it forces them into the consumer market. As their core customer realize that they no longer have to buy devices they may not care about BB anymore. That leaves BB in the shark-infested waters of consumer competition against Apple and the Android world
ReplyDeleteAgree Alex, in a way perhaps that's what led to their downfall with plenty of people I knew with work blackberries either owning a personal iPhone or at least being envious of those who did. I guess their big hope for redemption is user uptake of their new devices. This might come down to the deals they do with carriers, their pricing, and marketing as much as the quality of the phones and OS.
DeleteI would add that when you look at BlackBerry's "MDM" solution for non-Blackberry devices they effectively add basic EAS functionality and nothing more. Given that you will need to run a separate server for this as well, their solution now effectively competes with every other MDM solution. All of these solutions typically bring significantly more to the table than what "Fusion" or whatever it is now called, is offering.
ReplyDeleteMitch Lauer
Good point Mitch, pity the tech solution is different components for old, new, & other OS.
Deletehttp://aublackberryfusion.com/faq
http://blackberrystore.com.au/blackberry-enterprise-server/bes-10-device-service-licence-bds
Infact, if the BYOD trend is to continue and gains momentum, it is BlackBerry which will gain corporate's trust. let's remember that BYOD is built into the BB10 OS, whereas for Android, its too fragmented and insecure that unless Google steps in seriously, its going to be tough for Android adopters to compete with the new BlackBerry platform. That said, some of the popular consumer mobile applications are already available in the latest BlackBerry app world. This means only one thing - perfect balance between Work & Play. And so far, only BlackBerry is the only one who have really implemented it, while others are trying to catch up to this concept.
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