Enterprise CrackBerry addicts are flocking to Orlando for RIM’s annual user conference, the Wireless Enterprise Symposium, and I’ll be there to cover it.
It will be an interesting conference. RIM is embracing consumers as the next big growth market for smartphone subscribers, while continuing to position itself with its traditional enterprise customers as the platform of choice for “mobility beyond email,” one of those “emerging trends” that seems to be always just emerging.
For consumers, the company seems to be leveraging the quality of its mobile email service, coupled with new smartphone models designed with more flash and sex appeal than its traditional handsets. Today, it’s just released the BlackBerry Bold, the first in the new 9000 series, with changes that make it more competitive with innovations in Apple’s iPhone.
For enterprise users, it’s still leading with BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), which is ever more clearly being reworked as an infrastructure application for configuring, deploying, securing, and managing not just mobile email but line of business applications.
A high-profile example of this plan is the recent deal with SAP, which commits both companies to develop a native BlackBerry version of SAP’s customer relationship management application, integrated with the smartphone’s email, address book, and calendar programs.
What I’m curious about is whether enterprise network professionals are convinced by RIM’s strategy, and its actions so far, to advance beyond mobile email.
If you’re a BlackBerry user, is your company’s mobile focus mainly still on email?
Do you have other mobile applications, and if so, are they based on BlackBerry or a rival such as Windows Mobile?
Do you think RIM can deliver as a mobility “platform” provider for the enterprise? Why, or why not?
