Should Apple buy RIM's secure network?

[PracticalMac]

My understanding what makes RIM popular for enterprise is the propitiatory secure email network.

What if Apple buys that and offers it on iOS?
Will lock in segment of market Android and Winphone cant.

Of course Apple could make its own, but why reinvent the wheel?

 

[roadbloc]

I don't think RIM will be planning on selling it. And tbh, iMessage seems to be pretty reliable.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

My understanding what makes RIM popular for enterprise is the propitiatory secure email network.

What if Apple buys that and offers it on iOS?
Will lock in segment of market Android and Winphone cant.

Of course Apple could make its own, but why reinvent the wheel?

Problem is it would cause companies to dump that network even faster.

No one in enterprise trust Apple for a damn good reason.

 

[G51989]

I don't RIM is going to go away.

I think they'll reinvent themselves, they'll end up selling basic Blackberry's to business's, super secure email, msging and all that fun stuff. At a discounted data plan, I think business will love it. And I think it will happen.

Apple is probably the least loved company in the enterprise market, and they do a bit of data mining, where RIM does not. They would all just drop it.

 

[maflynn]

I'm not seeing that as a good move by apple. They seem to have enough problems with iCloud and they built that. How will they manage someone else's network.

Besides what advantage will they gain for spending tons of money. RIM is losing marketshare left and right to iOS and android. Apple can sit by and let the customers come to them

 

[LethalWolfe]

I think that is too much of a niche filled with very demanding, low margin clients for Apple. Apple's history the past decade or so has basically been to bring experiences to a mainstream audience. They are fine if the niches come to them but they aren't going to cater to the niches.


Lethal

 

[Jedii]

RIM's APN is their biggest asset, they won't seel it. They should license their enterprise components ( BES ) etc.

 

[Consultant]

My understanding what makes RIM popular for enterprise is the propitiatory secure email network.

What if Apple buys that and offers it on iOS?
Will lock in segment of market Android and Winphone cant.

Of course Apple could make its own, but why reinvent the wheel?

iOS is already in use / being tested in over 90% of Fortune 500 companies.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

iOS is already in use / being tested in over 90% of Fortune 500 companies.

I am going to point out all that means is that they are allowing employee owned iPhones to access the email system.

That is vastly different than company own devices on the network. Very different things.

 

[maflynn]

I am going to point out all that means is that they are allowing employee owned iPhones to access the email system.

Yup, my company allows this, provided the phone has the proper security features. Both the iPhone and Blackberry phones do, some (many?) of the android phones do not so my company blocks those phones from the exchange servers.

In a sense companies I think like this as it saves them $$ from supplying their employees with phones themselves.

 

[rbrian]

I am going to point out all that means is that they are allowing employee owned iPhones to access the email system.

That is vastly different than company own devices on the network. Very different things.

My FTSE100 company is rolling out around 100,000 iPhones to all UK employees. They are, unfortunately, crippled to make them more secure, but they're vastly better than the basic Nokias we used to have, or the incomprehensibly awful Windows Mobile 5.0 not-very-smartphones we trialled in 2007.

We use them for corporate email (no personal email allowed), access to those parts of the intranet which don't use popups (can't turn off the pop-up blocker) and our own apps (App Store app removed) to deliver work to the engineers and allow managers to do whatever it is that managers do.

 

[smithrh]

I'd roll out a few more examples within the Fortune 100 to counter RP's claims, but I doubt it would change his mind, it appears well-set at this time.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Yup, my company allows this, provided the phone has the proper security features. Both the iPhone and Blackberry phones do, some (many?) of the android phones do not so my company blocks those phones from the exchange servers.

In a sense companies I think like this as it saves them $$ from supplying their employees with phones themselves.

Depends on the feature. Most Android phones are more secure for a company than an iPhone and offer features IT departments like.

Reason the Android phones are more secure is the corpate side and the personal side can be separated. That means a company can remotely wipe all their stuff from the phone and leave the personal side alone. That means if someone leaves the company they can remotely wipe all their data off the phone. Not something the iPhone can do. I know some pretty big name company that will block the iPhone but allow Android for this very reason.

It all in all it would be relatively few Android phones that fail to have those features and I would question the quality of an IT department if they did not know that.

 

[rdowns]

These Apple should buy threads are ridiculous. Apple doesn't make big acquisitions. They buy small companies with technologies they need and people they want.

 

[rhett7660]

Depends on the feature. Most Android phones are more secure for a company than an iPhone and offer features IT departments like.

Reason the Android phones are more secure is the corpate side and the personal side can be separated. That means a company can remotely wipe all their stuff from the phone and leave the personal side alone. That means if someone leaves the company they can remotely wipe all their data off the phone. Not something the iPhone can do. I know some pretty big name company that will block the iPhone but allow Android for this very reason.

It all in all it would be relatively few Android phones that fail to have those features and I would question the quality of an IT department if they did not know that.

Really, that is funny, because right now you can separate iOS items from personal and department and they can remote swipe either select items or the whole phone. Hmm. Might want to do a little more research into this before saying it as fact because it sounds like you haven't done any lately.