back to article And for BlackBerry's next trick: Sawing Android, iOS IN HALF

BlackBerry has built software to split apps and files on Android and iOS phones into so-called "Secure Work Spaces" to prevent workers from mixing business with pleasure. These protected containers of data and applications will be managed by installations of BlackBerry Enterprise Server, effectively bringing BlackBerry OS 10's …

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  1. The_Regulator

    Nice Idea But Late to Party

    Really, I guess you don't need to include windows phone as it already has company management options built in.

  2. James Micallef Silver badge
    Meh

    Surely...

    ...that will make it easier for companies with BES to move off Blackberry?

    1. James 51

      Re: Surely...

      Probably but if a company is going to ditch BES and the handsets, now perhaps they will ditch the handsets and keep BES. Or who knows, even buy into BES and then the handsets.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Surely...

      Yes. SCCM + Windows phone is a good replacement for Blackberry with a lower TCO. None of the security and walware issues of Android either.

      The real trick will be if Blackberry can last out the year with a rapidly shrinking cashpile and shrinking sales...

      1. P. Lee

        Re: Surely...

        If malware infestations were really an obstacle to enterprise usage, the year of the linux desktop would have been ancient history. The real challenge is inertia.

        I'd like to see BB succeed here, but unless companies kick in to defray costs, what employee is going to pick a BB over another phone?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Surely...

          Rumours of the year of the Linux desktop ARE ancient history. Companies have seen the high level of exploits of Internet facing Linux systems - the one place where Linux is used - and the stratospheric Linux vulnerability counts - and the massive costs and failure of project like Munich - where it has had tens of millions thrown at it, but yet still isn't completed in a decade, and when people want applications like Office that actually work - have to access them on Windows via Citrix anyway....Why would anyone want to do that? Hence pretty much no one is...If there was any corporate advantage at all, companies would be scrambling over themselves to be first in line!

      2. Mark Hayden
        FAIL

        Re: Surely...

        Cash pile increased by $600m to $2.9b last quarter. Does not match your incorrect statement.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Surely...

          "Cash pile increased by $600m to $2.9b last quarter. Does not match your incorrect statement."

          Finally, there is at least 1 commentard with a clue to what is really going on and not just respewing the same old story.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Surely...

          No, that was CASH FLOW. Not the same. Blackberry had cash and cash equivalents of $1.9 billion as of Dec.1, 2012, and is expected to have made a significant loss in Q4.

  3. Khaptain Silver badge

    BB's IT Policy

    I hope people are sufficiently forewarned about the lockdowns that BB IT Policies are capable of.

    Obviously I can't speak for "Secure Work Spaces" on IOS, Android yet but on their own platforms their IT Policies can be a PITA. Our company uses a 2 minute timeout before the phone locks, after which a minumum 7 character password has to be typed in. Once a day is OK but after you have typed in your password for the 30th time that day it starts to get really boring...... There are far more restrictions but that's the one that kills me.

    Now can you imagine that on your OWN phone in the case of a BYOD situation.......

    1. James 51

      Re: BB's IT Policy

      With great control comes great responsibility. Sounds like you need to have a word with the admins. In this case, BB is just the messenger.

      1. TeeCee Gold badge
        Flame

        Re: BB's IT Policy

        Don't waste your time. The admins won't give a rat's arse, they'll just be implementing some managerial steering group's idea of a security policy.

        The admins will have exempted themselves and the managers who dreamed it up, from it too.

        1. James 51

          Re: BB's IT Policy

          I was going to put something in about the managers in but had already hit submit.

  4. g.marconi

    I think you'll find that essentially Blackberry has had this ability for many years, so it is nothing new and most certainly not inspired by anything Apple may have done.....more likely it is the reverse !

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They've had this ability on their own phones - not on Android or IOS handsets!

  5. Andrew Baines Silver badge
    FAIL

    New Novell?

    I like my BB, but their strategy sounds very similar to that tried by Novell Netware - offer up services to completing platforms. They soon became irrelevant.

  6. IGnatius T Foobar
    FAIL

    Fail == Fail

    When the BOFH pushes "wipe device" he expects the mobe to self-destruct, anything less and the device will not be allowed on the network.

    It seems that the true solution would be virtualization for Android (and perhaps some of the bit players such as Blackberry, iPhone and Windoze Phone). An entire virtual handset, with its own IMEI number, phone number, and operating system, running inside the "real" phone.

  7. ecofeco Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    BB = WTF

    Once again, BB is making things more complicated than they need to be, which has ALWAYS been their problem.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sometime my sister Blackberry, she show her app to my brother WindowsPhone and say "you will never get this you will never get it la la la la la la la". He behind his cage. He cries, he cries and everybody laughs. She goes "you never get this". But one time he break cage thanks to third party developer and "get this" and everybody laugh. High Five!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Except that Windows Phone has roughly twice the apps of Blackberry 10 (over 160,000), and over 40% of the Blackberry apps are straight ports of Android apps - overwhelmingly of the low end beer and fart type....

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