Research In Motion Ltd (BBRY): BES 10.1 Adds BYOC to Mobile

Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has made no bones that while it still plans to roll out more devices in the coming months – a new flagship called the A10 in being rumored, as in a mid-range touchscreen device called the Z5 – it is definitely taking the philosophy that in order to survive as a tech company, it seems to be directing its attention to software and services geared primarily for the enterprise. Now that seems kinda risky, considering Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has established Windows as the dominant enterprise platform.

But there has been one huge rub against Microsoft that seems to open the door for competition, and that is the darned siloed ecosystem. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was able to get away with it for years, but as businesses and government have become more mobile with smartphones and tablets being used outside of the traditional office space, the concept of BYOD (bring your own device) has spring up, and Microsoft had been slow to modify its enterprise services to accommodate iOS and Android devices that many companies allow their employees to use.

That seems to be just what Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) could exploit, as it has recently announced that its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service would soon be available on iOS and Android devices, and now he company is due to unveil Blackberry Enterprise Services 10.1, and update to BES 10 which provides essentially a BYOC (bring your own cloud) to mobile devices, as BlackBerry  looks to make the push to become the Microsoft of the current mobile enterprise world.

This update to BES 10 will allow “enterprises to manage complex fleets of mobile devices,” according to BlackBerry – which would mean having iOS, Android, BlackBerry and even Windows Phone devices to all sync with the enterprise network and work seamlessly together for the common good of the enterprise.

The added enhancement that is being tested now is to have BES 10.1 serve a cloud service for mobile devices, according to Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) senior vice president Pete Devenyi.

Having a service developed essentially for the BYOD enterprise seems like the right opportunity for BlackBerry to keep its relevance in the marketplace as something other than a secure operating system for business people – and with the dominance of iOS and Android in the smartphone space, to be able to provide that similar security as well as efficient synchronization of all mobile devices within an enterprise environment, and adding a cloud component to mobile, could signal a new player in the enterprise and perhaps the first legitimate competition for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in years. What do you think? Give us your feedback in the comments section below.

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