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October 17, 2010

Could Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices eventually lose their edge on the enterprise market, as companies seek to add support for more consumer friendly smartphones (such as Android and iPhone devices) and the BlackBerry's well publicized security features become less compelling?

Well that's what some people are starting to believe, nevertheless.

Research In Motion has built its business on providing secure (read: encrypted) mobile e-mail and messaging services to orporate users. Thousands of companies use BlackBerry exclusively for mobile communications. And the company dominates the market with about a 62 percent market share.

Much of the corporate interest stems from the company's reputation for strong device management and especially security.

However, a major shift now is underway as IT departments all over the world are no longer dictating which mobile devices workers can and cannot use. Instead, employees are bringing their own smartphones and tablets into the office and finding ways to work them into their professional lives, and that's what it's all about.

And now Forrester Research recently issued a report concluding that the iPhone and iPad are secure enough, with the right policies and technical controls.

While RIM is still considered the industry-standard when it comes to mobile security, CIOs say they can no longer ignore the strong needs and popular demands of their workers, who want to use their personal smartphones for work, namely iPhones and Androids.

"We've always been a BlackBerry company," said Rusty Yeager, deputy chief information officer of HealthSouth, one of the largest health care providers in the U.S. "But we recently started in supporting other platforms as well. Our employees and even some of our own doctors are really pushing us to support iPhones, iPads, and Android devices, so we don't have a choice, really."

"The decision of which mobile device to support in a company is no longer happening in the CIO's office," said John Herrema, senior v.p. of corporate strategy at Good Technology, a company that offers enterprise class device management and mobile security solutions. "It's happening at a retail store one consumer at a time. It's a big shift, and companies have to adapt, and adapt rapidly."

John Dick, CIO of Western Union, another BlackBerry-only firm, said his company is already testing applications developed for the iPhone, and it will eventually support Android devices, too. The company is still evaluating the costs involved with supporting an additional mobile platform or two.

But Dick said that Western Union will eventually get there, even it it takes a few more quarters to adapt.

"Our CEO already has an iPhone," he added. "The truth is that most people carry two devices, and that can be a bit cumbersome at times. And they really only want to carry just one, so it just makes sense if we can make that happen."

The sheer proliferation of smartphones in the market, and the overall success of Google's Android devices and the iPhone among consumers, is rapidly driving demand in the enterprise segment. And it's not just iPhones and Android phones that people want to bring into work, the Apple iPad, which sold 3 million units in its first 80 days on the market, has also become popular among workers.

The combination in enhancements has been enough to satisfy some analysts. Forrester Research recently issued a report concluding that the iPhone and iPad are secure enough, with the right policies and technical controls. Just like RIM, Apple now supports e-mail message encryption on its iPhones, device wipes, passcode locks, autolock, automatic wipes, protected configuration profiles and continuous refresh.

Google Android phones using version 2.2 of the software also now meet most enterprise security criteria. And device makers, such as Motorola, are also trying to enhance the hardware to provide even better security and remote management.

At last week's CTIA trade show in San Francisco, Motorola introduced the Droid Pro, a BlackBerry-looking device with a touch screen and full Qwerty keypad that offered security features inherent in Android 2.2 as well as additional features added by Motorola.

"There's no question that tablets are hot right now," Good's Herrema said. "So any company that is considering adding more device support is looking at that category and thinking about how it can best address the needs of its users."

This is likely why RIM announced its own tablet, the PlayBook, months before it will even be available. Even though many of the details of the device were missing at the launch and reviewers have yet to get their hands on it for a full review, RIM may have announced something just to prevent its corporate customers from allocating money in next year's budgets toward buying iPads and Android tablets.

The added competition from the iPhone and Android phones is already starting to eat into RIM's market share. From May to August of this year, RIM's market share dipped from 69 percent to 66 percent, according to a survey by Change Wave Research.

Until recently, many corporate IT departments resisted supporting any devices other than those running on RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The reason was that the original iPhone and Android software lacked adequate security features for business users.

With Apple's OS 3.1 and Google's Android 2.2, the software platforms now each offer enough security features built-in to satisfy most enterprise requirements. And this is coupled with support from companies like Good Technology, which offers message encryption and server architecture similar to what RIM offers.

The main difference is that the Good technology allows companies to support multiple mobile platforms, including iPhone and Android, along with traditional Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Palm Treo devices.

Meanwhile, Android usage among business users has steadily climbed since November 2009. Nearly a year ago, only about three percent of companies said they supported Google's mobile operating system. In August 2010, that percentage jumped to 16 percent of surveyed companies saying they support Android.

The iPhone has also become popular among business users, and Apple now accounts for about 30 percent of the enterprise smartphone market share. And as the iPad grows in popularity that figure is likely to climb.

Most experts agree that RIM isn't likely to disappear from the corporate landscape anytime soon. There are still many corporate consumers who like the look and feel of the BlackBerry. What's more, the company is trying to develop devices that will appeal to consumers, such as the new touchscreen BlackBerry Torch.

So it's likely that RIM will remain a major player for some time. But it will have a lot more competition. Herrema said that market opportunity for Android and Apple in the enterprise is not in getting existing, company-issued BlackBerry users to migrate to a different smartphone.

Instead, he said, the biggest opportunity is in enabling the other 70 percent of workers who haven't been issued a BlackBerry access to corporate e-mail and other company resources on the go.

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Source: Forrester Research.