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Blackberry problems


Tipex
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They were big in the corporate world, a few years ago, but I'm not so sure they are any more, they are still fairly big, but I'm sure their market share must be dropping every week, not even due to this current incident.

In terms of physical units in deployment they ARE big in corporate. In terms of future though I think they're a spent force. They're a bitch of a platform to develop for and their attitude to open interop is a joke. Believe it or not getting MSFT software onto an iPhone is easier than on to Blackberry devices. Biggest ballache for me lately has been trying to work out how to do fixed mobile convergence on Blackberry.

Solution for iPhones, Android and WinMo all in place - Blackberry, absolute pain in the ass.

The BES method of mail delivery is an archaic one too - more complex than ActiveSync (what other mobiles use), harder to set up (far better with later platforms to be fair), and is a costed product.

RIM need to get their act together, and quickly - they're being decimated. I can't think of a single client of mine that wants to move forward with RIM - all our Exchange deployments are only supporting RIM for legacy, with people moving in droves away from the platform. I didn't see it coming at all.

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They were big in the corporate world, a few years ago, but I'm not so sure they are any more, they are still fairly big, but I'm sure their market share must be dropping every week, not even due to this current incident.

They're *huge* in the Corporate market, no doubt about it.

Who on here would buy a Blackberry? I know I wouldn't, and they don't do anything that can't be done on an iPhone or Android phone, other than annoy the salesman it's been given too, simply because it's not an iphone.

I wouldn't want to use an iPhone for work, I'd hate it actually. I like my iPhone for reading stuff on but for sending emails of an appreciable length the cruddy keyboard drives me nuts. The Blackberry on the other hand is great for long emails and if you're someone who travels a lot on business like I do then being able to catch up on emails quickly and easily is an absolute God send.

That said, I don't want a Blackberry for my personal phone, no way.

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So really, the only benefit the Blackberry has is the keyboard, it's no better for reading emails, just typing them?

I know what you mean about the iPhone keypad, it can be frustrating sometimes, but my fingers are too big for a Blackberry, so I end up pressing 3 buttons at a time!

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So really, the only benefit the Blackberry has is the keyboard, it's no better for reading emails, just typing them?

From a user perspective, yes. Reading emails on the iPhone is absolutely fine but sending is a pain. From an administration point of view though, the Blackberry is much easier to secure, remote wipe, push applications to and so on. It also takes out the user setup stuff as they can't delete the email account like they can on an iPhone.

Plus with an iPhone you have to have an internet facing route into your corporate mail system whereas with a Blackberry you don't so there's less attack surface.

I know what you mean about the iPhone keypad, it can be frustrating sometimes, but my fingers are too big for a Blackberry, so I end up pressing 3 buttons at a time!

I've got big fingers too but find that the keyboard on my Blackberry is very usable. Any smaller and it wouldn't be.

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From a user perspective, yes. Reading emails on the iPhone is absolutely fine but sending is a pain. From an administration point of view though, the Blackberry is much easier to secure, remote wipe, push applications to and so on. It also takes out the user setup stuff as they can't delete the email account like they can on an iPhone.

Plus with an iPhone you have to have an internet facing route into your corporate mail system whereas with a Blackberry you don't so there's less attack surface.

I've got big fingers too but find that the keyboard on my Blackberry is very usable. Any smaller and it wouldn't be.

I look after the BB infrastructure for our c1000 mobile device users and had only a little downtime on the BES side of things last week. My BIS was kaput though...

As Burble says the administration and remote wipe policies etc are the big point for BES. The set up and deployment now, with Exchange 2010 is really very easy, and as most providers give BES for free in all our countries with the connections then actually, it works out very cheaply.

There are moves to incestigate iPhones / Android etc - what are the software options with these to be able to have the remote admin tools and policies like on a BB device, and has anyone here got experience with them?

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There are moves to incestigate iPhones / Android etc - what are the software options with these to be able to have the remote admin tools and policies like on a BB device, and has anyone here got experience with them?

The Core 3 options are Good for Enterprise, Symantec Mobile Management and Sophos MDM. There are others but they are much of a muchness. Good is the most secure, with CESG and IL2 accreditation, but it works in much the same way as BES, including requiring a server, licenced in a server/CAL model. It creates a secure sandbox inside an application that secures the whole enterprise piece. It's VERY useful for BYOD environments. However the price point means that if you are buying devices and Good, you may as well stick with BB + BES.

Symantec mobile mgmt is pretty good, and a lot cheaper. It is more of a security platform than full MDM suite, but still provides very strong security, and allows you to set policies, push apps etc. Sophos' deal is pretty similar.

Symantec MM currently works for iOS fully, Android support coming in the new year. It can be put onto other OS devices, but with fewer features.

All 3 of these will allow remote admin, policies etc, though the feature sets vary. If you are seriously considering it i'd be happy to send you some information/ get one of our security team to give you a call (I work for Softcat - an IT reseller, we are currently doing quite a few MDM projects, and have successfully implemented several projects in the past)

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The Core 3 options are Good for Enterprise, Symantec Mobile Management and Sophos MDM. There are others but they are much of a muchness. Good is the most secure, with CESG and IL2 accreditation, but it works in much the same way as BES, including requiring a server, licenced in a server/CAL model. It creates a secure sandbox inside an application that secures the whole enterprise piece. It's VERY useful for BYOD environments. However the price point means that if you are buying devices and Good, you may as well stick with BB + BES.

Symantec mobile mgmt is pretty good, and a lot cheaper. It is more of a security platform than full MDM suite, but still provides very strong security, and allows you to set policies, push apps etc. Sophos' deal is pretty similar.

Symantec MM currently works for iOS fully, Android support coming in the new year. It can be put onto other OS devices, but with fewer features.

All 3 of these will allow remote admin, policies etc, though the feature sets vary. If you are seriously considering it i'd be happy to send you some information/ get one of our security team to give you a call (I work for Softcat - an IT reseller, we are currently doing quite a few MDM projects, and have successfully implemented several projects in the past)

Softcat used to be our software reseller!

Cheers - will look into it and maybe contact you....

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