Research in Motion has announced BlackBerry Enterprise Server support for iOS -- namely BES and RIM's newly acquired ubitexx technology, will soon be able to provide management and security features for iPhone and iPad.
“The multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution is designed to address a growing market and respond to requests from enterprise customers who want a secure multi-platform device management solution from a company that already delivers the gold standard for enterprise mobility,” said Peter Devenyi, Vice President, Communications Platform Group at Research In Motion. “We recognize the opportunity to continue leading in the enterprise market by providing customers with a common platform to help simplify the management of a variety of mobile devices.”
iOS -- and Android for that matter -- won't get all the fancy features BlackBerrys on BES enjoy (most of those are OS level services) but they'll get enough to make it very interesting for IT departments.
Microsoft once faced the choice of keeping ActiveSync a competitive advantage for Windows Mobile, hurting their platform but helping their devices, or licensing ActiveSync and gaining infrastructure share at the expense of device share. They chose the latter and now ActiveSync is a key part of iOS, Mac OS X, GoogleSync, and many Android devices. RIM had chosen to keep their technology for themselves... up until now and it begs the question -- if they're going to let BES go cross-platform, could BBM follow?
And what if any increased competition will Apple's new "iCloud" services offer in the enterprise space?
Full BlackBerry World PR after the break! Anyone counting the days until you can hook your iPhone or iPad into BES?
[CrackBerry]
