BlackBerry OS: New BlackBerry Apps, MS Buying RIM?
Two new BlackBerry applications out today are aimed at helping mobile IT with wireless security and mobile device management issues relating to the BlackBerry OS. — But that's not the only news pertaining to Waterloo that's grabbing headlines …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Microsoft–RIM question is a rerun, not a new one: back in August 2007, Ars Technica asked whether Microsoft was cooking up some BlackBerry pie, and today's headline revives that same unconfirmed speculation about Waterloo. Nothing has been verified — the claim remains rumor status, with neither company confirming anything.
What is concrete is RIM's continued push into enterprise tooling: two new applications ship today aimed squarely at mobile IT, targeting wireless security and mobile device management on the BlackBerry OS, following last year's release of the official OS 5.0 upgrade list and the promised Mac version of BlackBerry Desktop Software.
First-order effects
- Mobile IT teams managing BlackBerry fleets gain dedicated wireless security and device-management applications today, deepening the administrative layer around the BlackBerry OS.
- RIM and Microsoft both operate under an unconfirmed acquisition narrative that neither has validated, which enterprise buyers weighing platform commitments must discount accordingly.
Second-order effects
- If the takeover speculation persists without confirmation, RIM faces pressure to answer it through product momentum — enterprise app releases like these are the tangible counterargument.
- Competing mobile-device-management vendors now benchmark against RIM shipping management tooling natively for its own OS, squeezing third-party middleware margins on BlackBerry deployments.
Third-order effects
- The recurrence of the Microsoft–RIM pairing since 2007 signals that enterprise mobility is viewed as a consolidation target, where the durable asset is the secure management stack rather than any single handset.
- As smartphone platforms mature, security and device administration become the differentiating layer that large software companies seek to own — by build or by acquisition.
The trend: Enterprise mobility is consolidating around integrated OS-plus-security-management stacks, with periodic large-acquirer rumors like Microsoft–RIM marking how strategically valuable that control layer has become.