BlackBerry is repositioning itself as a device management company—but is already being beaten by Google

BlackBerry recently published an open letter to its "valued enterprise customers and partners," to remind everyone that they "are very much alive, thank you." The newly-minted CEO, John Chen, makes an important—and telling—concession to the "new" mobile computing landscape: recognizing "that BlackBerry devices are not for everyone."

Unfortunately BlackBerry devices are losing ground faster than ever according to data released by Gartner last month. BlackBerry now sits at a mere 1.8% of the global smartphone market, compared with 5.2% at the same time last year.

As a result of their declining sales of smartphones to end users, BlackBerry is beginning to reposition itself to focus on a handful of what it sees as key areas: enterprise mobile management (EMM) solutions and embedded systems, as well as cross-platform instant messaging (BBM).

It's not hard to see why BlackBerry sees the need to pivot away from what has traditionally been its strength, but unfortunately it's pivoting straight into a marketplace where it's pricing itself out of contention. BlackBerry's enterprise management capability revolves around the BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES), a software package that requires you to either manage an on-site server or pay for hosting one in the cloud, in addition to the $19 per year management fee. Add to that the fact that the newest version of BES (10.2) can't manage BlackBerry devices running older versions of the BlackBerry operating system and you need to double your server count just to be able to manage both generations of devices.

As if all that wasn't enough, the $19 license fee is charged per device, so if you have two devices, each one of them needs its own license fee. And who doesn't have a smartphone and a tablet these days? In fact, a Sophos survey says consumers are carrying an average of 2.9 mobile devices each.

Google Apps for Business and Education includes bring-your-own-device (BYOD) security for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry 10 in the $50 per user per year price tag—which includes activation on an unlimited number of mobile devices. We've tested management of BlackBerry 10 devices from the Google Apps console and it provides remote wipe and monitoring capabilities just as it would for any other device. There's really no need for a BES.

For about $12 more per year than two BES device fees per user, you can have an all-in-one, cloud-based productivity suite that includes BYOD management features and can replace your Exchange, Lotus Notes, or other email and documents solution. Sticking with BlackBerry means you're on the receiving end of all the IT headaches involved with patching, securing, and managing yet another server (or two!).

All of us at Interlock IT live close to BlackBerry headquarters in Waterloo and sincerely hope that they can find a successful market niche. BES 10.2 does have some advanced security features not found in other products. But the BYOD market is a highly competitive space already well-covered by giants like Google so BlackBerry has a tall, competitive mountain to climb.

Does anybody remember Palm?

As Windows XP and Exchange 2003 approach end of life, Google Apps can fill the gap

Microsoft's Windows XP is one of the most successful operating systems ever released, selling over 400 million licenses during its lifetime. When coupled with Exchange 2003, the two systems were hugely profitable for Microsoft. Businesses simply don't want to move away from products that still work well. However, after over twelve years of powering many of the world’s computers, Windows XP and Exchange Server 2003 will officially retire on April 8th, 2014.  This means that security patches will no longer be released by Microsoft leaving your Windows XP computers more susceptible to attacks, vulnerabilities, and other nasties.

However, Google has committed to support Chrome on Windows XP until at least April of 2015. Since unpatched browser bugs are often used by attackers to infect computers, this is great news for the millions of users still using Windows XP.

As of November 2013, Windows XP still accounts for a whopping 31.2% of desktop operating systems worldwide. Unfortunately no solid numbers are available for Exchange 2003's market share, but in March of this year The Radicati Group released its report, “Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, and Outlook Market Analysis, 2013-2017” which pegs overall Exchange usage at 51% of email systems in the Business Email and Collaboration market.

Google Apps for Business provides a powerful alternative to any Exchange Server or Outlook email system and relieves the pressure of constantly having to upgrade by doing all the heavy lifting for you. You're always on the newest version of Google Apps and you never have to worry about upgrading servers or micro-managing a fleet of incompatible devices, as nearly any device with a web browser will work.

So if you're near the end of Exchange Server 2003's life cycle, why not boost your company's productivity with Google Apps for Business? Contact us today to find out why Google Apps is the right fit for you!

Introducing the new Google bar and restoring Single Sign On (SSO) for Marketplace Apps

Google Apps is a constantly-evolving suite of the best web applications for businesses. As part of their quest to always make everything just a little bit better, Google recently rolled out a new navigation option that replaces the old Google bar.

The new Google bar.

The new app launcher replaces the traditional black navigation bar with a simple grid that is designed to keep the experience consistent across Android, Chrome OS, and the web. The complaint we've heard is that you now need at least one extra click and sometimes two in order to get to services that you used to be able to get to very quickly. As well, all your Google Apps Marketplace applications are hidden under the grey "More" link. We've had multiple customers contact us saying the links have simply disappeared, because it's not immediately obvious where they might be.

Not a big fan of the new navigation system? Not to worry! There is a way to avoid all the hunting, and it involves taking advantage of the excellent Bookmark Bar in the Chrome web browser. If you're using Chrome, press Ctrl+Shift+B (on Windows and Chrome OS) or ⌘-Shift-B (on a Mac) to show or hide the bar; you'll see it appear or disappear beneath the address bar if you've done it right. To add a bookmark to this bar, follow the instructions below (these show you how to add a single sign-on bookmark for Solve360):

1. Click the Chrome menu button () on the browser toolbar.
2. Select Bookmarks.
3. Select Bookmark manager. You can also get to the Bookmark manager by using the hotkey Ctrl+Shift+O (on Windows and Chrome OS) or ⌘-Shift-O (on a Mac).
4. Right-click on Bookmark bar in the left-hand navigation pane and click Add page....
   
5. Name it Solve360 and paste this URL: https://secure.solve360.com/marketplace/?domain=yourdomain.com (where yourdomain.com is replaced with your primary domain name).
   
6. Press Enter. You're done!

Now you'll have one-click access to Solve360 from anywhere in your browser, not just from your inbox. You can also hold down Shift while you click the bookmark to open it in a new window, and Ctrl+Click or click with your middle mouse button to open it in a new tab.

You can configure the same functionality for other services, such as FreshBooks (https://secure.freshbooks.com/google.php?domain=yourdomain.com) and Xero (https://login.xero.com/Signin/SignInWithGoogle?domain=yourdomain.com).

All you need is the URL that the service redirects to as soon as you click a link. Need help finding out exactly what that is? Contact us and we can do all the heavy lifting for you!