WATERLOO – BlackBerry is teaming up with rival smartphone maker Samsung on a new security solution for Android smartphones, the company said Thursday.
Amidst a deluge of announcements made from its enterprise portfolio launch event in San Francisco, BlackBerry said that enterprise customers can opt for the tightly integrated, end-to-end secure solution that brings together its brand new enterprise mobility management (EMM) solution BES 12 with Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets that are embedded with Samsung KNOX, starting early next year.
"BlackBerry has developed a very close partnership with Samsung and we're committed to deepening the interaction between our engineering and product development teams for the long-term," said John Sims, BlackBerry’s president of global enterprise services, in the news release. “It is a natural progression in our path to providing our customers with more alternatives to meet their evolving mobile needs.”
Samsung will resell BES12 to joint customers and BlackBerry will offer KNOX support as part of the Gold family of BES12 subscriptions. Pricing will be announced upon availability.
BlackBerry also announced:
– that Ingram Micro, Orange France SA, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, DMI, Brightstar, and many other partners and mobile operators around the world are now offering BES 12;
– that Bombardier, American Crane, Home Hardware and Rocco Forte are among a group of global customers that are migrating to BES 12;
– two identity and access solutions, Enterprise Identity by BlackBerry and VPN Authentication by BlackBerry, that it says will enable enterprise workers to be more productive without compromising security or cost effectiveness;
– the launch of BBM Meetings, a multi-OS, mobile first voice and video conferencing solution which delivers a mobile collaboration experience that enhances the productivity of mobile professionals, while reducing the operating cost for the enterprise; and
– an agreement with Salesforce to connect its No. 1 customer relationship management platform to BlackBerry's enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions.
