BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) CEO John Chen welcomed Google’s initiative to make Android mobile platform safer by using Samsung KNOX containerization tech. Chen said that Google has finally accepted the need to improve Android security and that his company has adopted the same approach for many years now.
In an official BlackBerry Blog, John Chen said, “I’m delighted by this first step. The need to improve Android’s security was clear. And it validates what we at BlackBerry have been saying all along about the potential perils that businesses face in the BYOD era.”
BES12 critical for growth
The Canadian smartphone maker is making efforts to transform from a hardware company to a software major, which largely depends upon the success of BlackBerry Enterprise Server 12. BES12 offers reverse compatibility for companies with older BlackBerry devices and also helps the enterprise to manage their iOS and Android devices.
Analysts note that BES12 would be a real game changer for BlackBerry, if implemented well. According to analysts, the new version releasing in November can revive the company and put it back in the dominant position.
The Canadian company is leaving no stone unturned to beef up its security measures. Recently, BBM Messenger Protect was launched that enables the employees to do speedy, reliable and private business communication. The service increases the security many times for the messages sent between the BlackBerry devices along with an extra encryption code over an already encrypted message.
Samsung KNOX lags behind BlackBerry
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) KNOX could not garner the same popularity as the BlackBerry product, which reflects in the number of users totaling 2 million for KNOX compared to 10 million of BlackBerry. Google platform needed some security tightening on its Android platform, which would now be available to it following the announcement at I/O.
Samsung created KNOX and offered it to the Android platform to make the platform adaptable by enterprises. The enterprise market has gone down compared to the consumer market. The reason behind the grim acceptance is the various versions of Android that are difficult to manage. For this reason, Samsung adopted the container technology, which will differentiate between the personal from that of office work. The South Korean electronics maker mentioned that adoption of KNOX by large number of Android users will help the developers along with more enterprise features.
