RIM has its work cut out -- but no last rites yet, please
When Nokia announced recently that it was throwing its weight behind Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was quoted as saying that the partnership creates a “three-horse race” between Windows Phone, Google Android and Apple iOS mobile operating systems.
Nokia’s explanation of the partnership did strike a positive chord. Real competition requires at least three formidable players, and a Nokia/Microsoft combination is a force to be reckoned with. However, no one should be so quick to dismiss Research In Motion (RIM), which is working its fingers to the bone to evolve with market demands.
ANALYSIS: Both Nokia, Microsoft have much to gain, and lose, in mobile deal
The company laid out plans last month for a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) cloud service, for example. That could be a crucial turning point, because about the only thing IT departments don’t love about BlackBerry is having to buy and manage the BES. Moving BES services to the cloud in a pay-as-you-go model might be just the compromise necessary to reinvigorate the one-time enterprise smartphone leader — if RIM can also figure out how to become groovy enough again to appeal to 20-somethings.
On that score, RIM is said to be developing software that would allow its upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, announced last fall, and possibly its BlackBerry smartphones to run Android applications. And the company said at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2011 that it intends to launch two PlayBook tablets later this year that support LTE and HSPA+ wide-area wireless networks.
The company is working hard.
IT folks are reluctant to break off the security and business-class policy setting and enforcement capabilities that accompany the BlackBerry platform. Yet they are also facing the challenge of the BYOD (“bring your own device”) mentality invading their enterprises. For those devices, an avalanche of MDM platforms analogous to the BES but with broader reaching client support and features that span management, security, performance monitoring and even expense management are hitting the scene, and enterprises are somewhat shell-shocked at this juncture as to how to make sense of all the offerings.
If RIM devices can regain its “cool” factor and RIM moves the BES to the cloud, there could well be a four-horse race afoot.
