RIM offers mobile management software

Research In Motion, the Canadian manufacturer of the BlackBerry, is aiming to shore up its relationship with key corporate customers by offering them software that will enable them to manage the iPhones, Android-based devices and tablet PCs that employees are bringing to work.

RIM has faced a growing challenge in some markets including North America, where its share of the smartphone market has been falling as employees choose to use their own devices rather than company-issued BlackBerrys.

The new device management software, called BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, is expected to be available in March 2012 and can run alongside or replace the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software used by most companies.

The flow of devices such as Apple’s iPhone into the workplace has accelerated as companies seek to save money and improve flexibility by letting workers use their own devices. The new software will make it easier for IT departments to manage these devices and will also enable them to make the devices more secure by setting up “partitions” on the device for personal and corporate use.

Although RIM has expanded its subscriber base to include consumers in recent years – particularly in markets such as the UK, where the company's BlackBerry Messenger service is particularly popular – its core market remains corporate buyers.

Despite recent high-profile defections among its corporate customers, particularly in the financial services sector, RIM claims that 90 per cent of the top 500 companies in the world are still its customers.

Analysts said yesterday that the decision by RIM to roll out the new software is an important strategic move for the struggling company. However, most also believe it will have to do far more to get the company, whose share price has fallen 72 per cent this year, back on track.

“While a positive step, the larger challenges remain,” said Mike Abramsky of Royal Bank of Canada in a note to investors.

“RIM's need to narrow competitive gaps in its handsets, especially software and apps/content ecosystem, and improve execution to stave off share losses to Apple and Android. RIM's enterprise share remains dominant but headwinds to RIM's enterprise device share from Apple and Android is expected to intensify, particularly in the absence of more competitive BlackBerry devices.”