The BlackBerry executive team recently attended Mobile World Congress, underscoring their strategy with a renewed focus on core strengths in security, productivity, communications and collaboration. There’s a lot to cover, including newly announced enterprise solutions, partnerships, and smartphone models that enable enterprises and individuals to maximize their productivity, communication, and collaboration. This post summarizes news from the week as outlined in a recent press release.
In an overview, John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO at BlackBerry had this to say:
“We have engineered a new strategy to stabilize the company and restore our customers’ confidence in BlackBerry. The announcements made during Mobile World Congress demonstrate that BlackBerry is looking to the future and bringing solutions to market that matter most to our customers. These secure solutions emphasize our strengths in enterprise mobility, while empowering end users to become more productive with technologies that drive communications and collaboration.”
The Inside BlackBerry for Business blog has detailed coverage of our enterprise focused news. Here’s a glance at what we’ve got coming up for our valued enterprise customers.
Secure and Private Mobility Solutions for Enterprises
- The next generation of BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES), BES12, will enable organizations to develop enterprise-grade applications that are quickly deployed to BlackBerry smartphones and other mobile devices. The BES12 platform will offer backward and future compatibility, unifying BES10 and BES5 on to one platform. The flexibility and scalability of the new BES12 architecture will also provide customers with the ability to move securely from on-premise to the cloud effortlessly and securely.
- A new EZ Pass program will enable a free migration path for customers to move from BES and other MDM platforms to BES10. For existing BlackBerry customers, the EZ Pass program will match any active existing on-premise BES license and any active license customers may have from other MDM vendors with a corresponding Silver BES10 perpetual license*. Customers will also receive free Advantage-level technical support with their new license to help them get up and running fast.
- A new BES pricing and licensing structure will provide two simple tiers, Silver and Gold. Silver includes full device, application, email and security management for BlackBerry, iOS® and Android™ devices, including the unique BlackBerry Balance technology, a containerization solution that separates personal and work data on BlackBerry 10 smartphones. Gold adds BlackBerry’s Secure Work Space containerization solution for iOS and Android, and advanced BlackBerry 10 management and security features for the most security-conscious organizations, including government, financial services and healthcare.
- Enterprise BBM (eBBM) Suite, a new family of products and services that work with BlackBerry smartphones and BES and BES10 to provide enterprise-class mobile messaging that brings together the core strengths of BBM with features and capabilities aimed at enterprises. BBM Enterprise (formerly known as BBM Protected) will be the first solution offered in the new eBBM Suite, bringing regulated industries the most secure and reliable real-time mobile messaging in the industry.
We also revealed some of the latest companies to adopt BES10, including Daimler AG and Airbus Group. These distinguished corporations are part of an industry-leading 80,000 companies whose communications are secured by BlackBerry.
As you may have read, here, on Inside BlackBerry we’ve also got some exciting new smartphone devices planned. Check out a brief description below.
New Devices for “Making Things Happen”
John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO at BlackBerry & Terry Gou, Founder and Chairman, Foxconn holding the new BlackBerry Z3 at Mobile World Congress, 2014.
- BlackBerry Z3 smartphone is an upcoming all-touch BlackBerry 10 smartphone designed for customers in Indonesia. The stylish yet affordable 5” smartphone will come with the latest BlackBerry 10 OS, version 10.2.1, and exceptional productivity features. The BlackBerry Z3 is the first product to emerge from the Company’s strategic partnership with Foxconn.
- BlackBerry Q20 smartphone is an upcoming QWERTY smartphone that merges the power of BlackBerry 10 with the classic BlackBerry design and experience, realized with hard buttons as well as an integrated trackpad. With a new 3.5” touchscreen and keyboard with frets and sculpted keys, the device will feature the familiar workflow and efficiency that BlackBerry fans continue to value in a BlackBerry QWERTY smartphone.
Pricing and Availability
The new BlackBerry Z3 smartphone is expected to be available from leading carriers and retailers in Indonesia in April. The new BlackBerry Q20 smartphone will be available in the second half of 2014. Further details on pricing and availability for both smartphones will be announced at launch. For more information about BlackBerry 10, visit www.blackberry.com/blackberry10OS.
The BES12 platform will be available by the end of 2014. An early adopter program will be open for participation this summer. For more information on BlackBerry’s enterprise mobility management solutions, please visit www.BES10.com.
The EZ Pass offer including Advantage-level technical support will be available March 31, 2014 through January 31, 2015.* Please visit www.blackberry.com/ezpass to apply for the program.
The Silver and Gold pricing structure will be in effect beginning March 31, 2014. Please visit www.blackberry.com/pricingupdate.
There you have it, be sure to let us know what you think in the comments below.
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