BYOD: Blackberry Fusion

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Posted on May 9, 2012 by Chris Lau Posted as Blogosphere Discussion Bring Your Own Device

News of Blackberry diminishing in the workplace is exaggerated, but Research in Motion recognizes the value of security. The company recently released Blackberry Mobile Fusion, to embrace the BYOD movement.

Mobile Fusion expands BYOD in the workplace, but some companies are balking at the licensing cost. If device support grows, RIM may have an opportunity to increase service revenues. Further, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said he was open to licensing Blackberry 10 (BB10).

BB10 is considered a wild card for RIM, when it is released later this year. Its success will not be known until a few quarters after its release. This means it will not be until late-2013, or when Blog Idol 6.0 is “released” in the wild, when it will be known if the system will be successful.

(Image Source: crackberry.com)

Until BB10 is launched, expect the discussion of BYOD to centre around other platforms, such as Android or Apple. Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 might even make the list. Blackberry’s current OS 7.1 should be expected to face steep declines this year. It will sell at a price that is heavily discounted.

Chris Lau Chris Lau (80 Posts)


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  • Bruce Stewart

    One of the great disappointments at the recent DevWorld when BB10 was given its launch was the lack of a solution to app availability beyond the traditional “we’ll work with developers”.

    Microsoft proved in the 1990s (as Apple, IBM (OS/2) and others discovered) that developers work to W. Brian Arthur’s “positive network economics” model. The more developers there are working on the platform, the more developers go to that platform as their first choice. Eventually other platforms get pruned out.

    The reality of the device market is that right now iOS owns the developers: almost all of them develop for iOS first. This is despite there being more Android activations in the field: they make money from the iOS community and have a limited number of targets to consider (one phone hardware spec, one pad hardware spec), so they do that release first. Android then comes second (market share). Others follow “eventually” or not at all. Increasingly, it’s becoming not at all.

    Figuring out how to become at least #2 is essential to RIM, and so far they’re not getting there. That does not augur well for the platform going forward, no matter how many BBs are currently in circulation and how much everyone loves their security framework.

  • http://twitter.com/chrispycrunch Chris Lau

    RIM did not provide much incentive when QNX/Playbook was launched concurrently with OS7 on the smartphone. This weakened RIM’s ability to grow the developer community.

    For BB10, RIM made the tools available now along with the hardware. There is incentive too: $10,000 back to the developer if that amount is not made in app world when BB10 launches. $100 million allocated for growing BB10 development community too. 

    Cascades, revamped WebWorks, and AIR offerings all add to a better assault on the lost market share. The experience (and the mistakes from its launch) with QNX 2 should prove to be beneficial for RIM this time around.

    • Bruce Stewart

      I hope you’re right. Inertia is a powerful thing.