BlackBerry Announces Cloud Service For Enterprise Mobility Management

Even as it has agreed to be sold to Fairfax Financial for $4.7 billion, BlackBerry is preparing to launch a new cloud service designed for enterprise mobility management across iOS, Android, and BlackBerry devices. In a post on the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog, BlackBerry Business Social Media Manager Luke Reimer says that the as yet unnamed service is geared toward business and end users alike. Convenience appears to be of utmost consideration with the service, as it's said to require neither IT experience nor servers. BlackBerry touts the following advantages of the upcoming service:

• Simple and fast deployment. No server hardware or software to install, just register and go.
• Administrators can easily manage and secure smartphones and tablets. The simple Web-based admin console will provide easy activation and deployment of BlackBerry, iOS and Android smartphones, app management, security policy configuration and compliance monitoring.
• Administrators can secure, deploy and manage apps. Administrators will be able to build a catalog of public apps from the App Store, Google Play and the BlackBerry World storefront, and then view app distribution and usage for all users and devices.
• End-users can manage their own devices through the self-service console. End-users will be able to easily perform common management tasks such as setting up or changing device passwords and remote wipe and lock without relying on an administrator, giving them independence and saving on helpdesk calls.

BlackBerry hasn't announced a pricing scheme for the service. But the company says that it will come in "a flexible package that will cost less than a cup of coffee a month," presumably for each user. If you're interested in BlackBerry's upcoming cloud service, you may sign up here to be informed once it becomes available. It's worth noting that BlackBerry hasn't mentioned a planned release date for its upcoming cloud service. Which is just as well, I think, lest its release date suffer the same fate as that of the much vaunted BlackBerry Messenger aka BBM for iOS and Android. Officially announced last May and scheduled to be released by the end of the summer, BBM for iOS and Android was confirmed to launch a couple of weekends ago. The app’s global rollout had begun as scheduled, but it was later halted as a result of a leaked older version of the BBM for Android app, which apparently caused some serious issues in BBM’s system. No word yet on when "BBM for all" is going to be launched for real.