I covered some of the strategies for implementing app management and security in my January research note on containerization. Using one method, where there is a proprietary SDK from the multitude of MDM vendors, what we call app specific has been around for a couple years now.  But at best only 40-50 apps have been developed this way. The problem is the management SDK is proprietary to each vendor so a management tool can only support its specific (hence app specific) app. Plus pre-existing apps need to be rewritten. Most app developers have held off of committing because of this. Another method is to wrap the app, but getting access to the binary, especially for third-party apps found on public app stores is difficult–and still proprietary to the application wrapper for management. What’s needed is some type of standard that app developers could use, that all MDM and app management vendors could integrate into. Of course that would mean getting all those vendors to agree on one method–probably some type of open source mobile app management SDK.  Then these vendors could compete on managing and securing apps, not on wooing app developers to use their standard. Another method would be to use app wrapping, but seperate the admin functions and APIs from the wrapping technology itself. This does have the advantage of quickly adapting existing apps without a lot of recoding.

One well known MDM vendor, MobileIron, is beginning to create an open SDK standard it’s calling (for now) the Open App Alliance, which was mentioned last month on brianmadden. It’s hoping to go public with the details in the next few weeks, but the alliance should include some big app providers, app development tool vendors and maybe even some adopter companies at the start. MobileIron would rather compete on its MDM platform than spend the time convincing adopters and developers to use its proprietary app SDK. One thing missing, at least for now, is other MDM vendors. In the end, their buy-in is essential for this to succeed. Maybe if enough adopters and app providers hop on board, this may convince other MDM vendors to head in this direction. Many of the big MDM vendors I talked to around this are interested, but have not committed yet.

It remains to be seen whether this will have the momentum to move forward. There’s a lot of work left to do and not a lot of time to do it, but in my mind, something needs to be done to alleviate the fragmentation of the mobile technology, get apps manageable and secured– and this is at least a step in the right direction.

With the release of iOS 6.1 last month, we are starting to hear reports from clients and MDM vendors about a bug with it that is causing excessive communications between devices and the Microsoft Exchange servers, especially with calendaring  that is causing conflicts and could knock them offline.  Besides cutting off users, the only thing IT can do is ask them not to use the calendaring function or install the upgrade.  Apple’s fix for today is to just have users reset their calendars.  Umm, OK.  Could this have been avoided?  You would think. I honestly don’t know how much testing Apple does with enterprise software before it releases a new version.  Whatever it is, it’s not enough.  This has happened before.  A couple years ago, a conflict, again with Exchange, occurred during the iOS 4.0 release.  A quick patch on the device was enough to alleviate the issue, but just a few devices could knock out email for a whole company.

So if Apple isn’t doing (enough) testing, you should.  Gartner has recommended in the past to test any new version of mobile OSes before they are allowed internally, this isn’t new.  Gartner itself has an internal testing lab with a seperate email server to evaluate any new devices or OSes before it is supposed to be adopted by the employee user base.  But with Apple, there is no way to stop users from updating on their own.  You could block them from access if they do an unapproved update, but no one wants to do that.  OS management–another thing to add to the enterprises’ wish list.  That and maybe Android devices!

Are you seeing any problems with Apple iOS 6.1?  What’s your policy on OS updates for smartphones and tablets?

So what does it mean for the enterprise user?  Though we will be coming out with an Impact Appraisal in a short bit–I thought I’d highlight some quick thoughts here:

1. There’s no need for a BES anymore–you can run it safely and securely through Microsoft EAS (sorry Notes users), though more robust MDM tools won’t be able to manage it.

2. With the use of BB Balance, it has one of the smoothest dual-persona capabilities.  It can run all 70,000 apps securely in one or both of the device workspaces.  You need the new BES 10 though to use it.

3.  MDM of iOS and Android comes with the BES 10 service–though it will manage Apple devices as well as anyone else, it is lagging in Android management.

That’s about it–this wasn’t about you anyway.  Like everyone else, BB is targeting the consumer market.  It’s done a great job of providing capabilities for the enterprise though, but I would have liked to have seen it open up some MDM APIs to the main MDM vendors.  Another thing–I would still like them to allow the devices to download apps directly from the various Android marketplaces.  All things being equal-people buy the phones for the apps–and though the launch with 70,000 gets them in the game, having the ability to run native Android apps would have been the game changer.

But it won’t be easy.  The challenge is that just like there in no one standard mobile platform or device form-factor, there is no one type of container technology.  To help reduce the confusion–I’ve just published a new research note for Gartner clients(or interested press), the first to introduce an architecture of containers, technology overview, a framework of container policies–and best practices for adopting containers in the enterprise.  It’s called, “Technology Overview of Mobile Application Containers for Enterprise Management and Security.” (I am also going for longest title of the year!) There are some key recommendations around the technology and use of containers in the enterprise, which are best suited and how containers will evolve.  I’ve also identified a list of over 20 container vendors and put together a handy table so you can easily see their product offerings.  What policies can containers support today ?  It’s in there! 

But we won’t stop there. We are working on at least two more pieces that go deep into the use cases for enterprises and a security review of container technologies.  It’s an exciting year here for sure.  What’s your container strategy?

There’s no doubt that RIM has taken a hit on global smartphone marketshare–especially in the enterprise where it is rapidly being replaced by iPhones.  It saw its installed base decrease for the first time in history to 79 million in the last quarter.  But in the famous words of Monty Python, it’s, “not dead yet!”  The fact is–RIM has not seen even close to the same level of decline in BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) installs.  Though I think that will increase this year as companies migrate off of the platform–I see a lot of business going to managed and hosted BES at some enterprises.  A Gartner survey  from Decmber 2012 of 222 companies, primarily in North America, said that almost 14% will still have BlackBerry as its primary platform in 12 months.  Speaking with clients regularly, I see the same level of interest–generally 15-20% of mobile employees who still prefer RIM for its security and its hard keyboard.

So a lot depends on the handset launch next week and the next few quarters of sales.  Preliminary views of the new device don’t show much differentiation on hardware form factor–though it is skinny, feels solid and a similar size screen to the iPhone 5.  It’s the user experience that will make the difference, which is where RIM focused its energies.  From what I have seen, it pays off.  The new BB10 offers the best UX on the market–not perfect, but certainly a rival to the iPhone 5, with even  greater performance.  The question is: will the market take it?  So I’ll go on record here saying that it will.  Now I don’t expect it to surpass iOS or Android sales,  but I think this device has great comeback potential.  And the fact that enterprises can support it using Exchange Active Synch offers a low impact solution if they don’t upgrade to the BES 10.

Which gets us to today’s announcement.  You can check it out here at RIM’s site, so I won’t go into the feature offerings.  But the integration of Mobile Fusion with multi-platform MDM and the BES just makes sense.  I think a key feature is the improved BlackBerry Balance, which offers an easy to use business container in a dual-persona format.  The growing interest of companies in seperating business vs. personal data, especially with BYOD, will help stem some of the flow of BES removals.  RIM has a lot riding on the next week’s announcements–maybe the future of the company.  It will be an interesting year ahead. More next week as the new phone is launched.

Citrix, which is mostly known for desktop virtualization, certainly sees the impact of mobile devices in the enterprise and has launched a number of products in the second half of this year to support both online and offline access to mobile data.  The idea of supporting smartphones and tablets fits well in its vision of extending desktops to any device.  Improving Wi-Fi and 4G networks make this very possible today for these devices.  But the maturity isn’t there yet as many of these desktop applications aren’t fully mobile optimized for these devices and network latency can cause user experience issues.  The acquisition shows the importance also of having an end-to-end solution in managing and optimizing for mobility.  Zenprise not only brings an MDM tool, but homegrown enterprise applications like secure browsers and a Sharepoint interface.  I expect to see this get bundled into Receiver sometime. It also will help drive sales of MDM and mobile apps in the cloud–an ever increasing opportunity.

For the industry, this acquisition, though not the first (last big one was RIM acquiring a small European vendor in 2011 to start its Mobile Fusion products) shows the continued maturation and opportunity expansion. There are a lot of competitors currently, which has had a negative impact on margin, even as adoption increases.  I’d expect to see more acquisitions in this space in the next year, both from the companies that will want to get into this market, like Cisco, HP and Oracle and from those that are looking to increase their size.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see successful MDM companies like AirWatch or Fiberlink start looking at some smaller vendors to expand their channel and breadth, especially as the bigger comapanies become more aggressive in pricing and bundling.

Now high hopes have been placed on the iPhone 5.  With the iOS 6 announcement earlier this year, many people feel (fear?) that this is yet another “evolutionary” phone.  No big software changes were seen, mostly users expect a larger screen by .5 inches and a faster wireless radio based on LTE.  Is that all?  Will that be good enough to sell 10 million phones in one week–a major record?  Probably. We won’t know what the phone will look like or do until it is announced, maybe on Wednesday, but I don’t expect it to change that much in the look and feel.  I think the standard is out there now. Phones are big enough, light enough, bright enough–it’s hard to be innovative and revolutionary again.  My belief is that it will be some time before we see such a sea change in hardware and software.  So what can Apple or others do?

The real opportunity in the future is not based on hardware and software advancements as much as mobile service advancements.  Whether this is through music, media (books, magazines) video, gaming or other applications, this is where the real revolution is due.  Changing the ways people view movies or TV, how they read and how they spend their dollars, this is the next frontier and one I predict is only just beginning.  Amazon is expected to be a big player in this space, no doubt, Google too.  I expect the future will be less about hardware and software and more about usage.

Similar to Verizon’s plans, AT&T’s Mobile Share plans include unlimited voice minutes and text messaging, and are priced based upon how much data is used. There is also a per device monthly access charge that runs from $30-$45 per user per month depending on how much data is bought.   AT&T requires at least one smartphone to be part of the plan.  Unlike personal users, corporate users do use the phone for calls–usually long conference calls.  Unlimited calling is more compelling to business users overall. 

Even though managing these plans will be complex (get your TEM provider on this), I think there will be many compelling reasons to assess these plans–especially by companies that pay for multiple data devices (phone, laptop, tablet).  There’s no doubt buying a pool of shared MBs or texts would be better, but at least companies can start to get away from paying for multiple services per user and optimize their overage and under spending.  And also–isn’t it nice when we share things?

2012 CTIA Wireless, Show Floor

The big names that are normally associated with the show, at least for handset–RIM, Nokia, Motorola, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung–were barely present.  No booths, just side meetings with no executive attendance.  The ones with the bigger booths, like HTC or ZTE are growing, but are not yet household names.  Even more interesting were these device platform companies like Plum, Unnecto or NYS Mobile–that had the biggest booths highlighting generic devices.  Are these the next big names in the industry?

There wasn’t much news going on, so that disappoints some, but there were lots of good meetings and innovative technologies.  A couple focused on the enterprise included the launch of Ericsson’s LTE “Office In A Box” called ECW.  Basically a wireless router with every type of technology (less WiMAX)  and PBX functionality to support voice and data for small offices, all over a wireless link.  I also like Wave Connections IP-based PTT services on Android and iOS platforms.  They even offer five free licenses so good for family use too.

As for the big speeches, there was the usualy carrier session with the top four CEOs.  It didn’t start with a big crowd, but eventually filled up.

 It was billed as a Q&A with Jim Kramer from CNBC, but out of a 90 minute session, that was only about 25 minutes.  The rest was the usually grandstanding on how great wireless is, how more spectrum is need etc.  As someone put it, if preaching to the choir was illegal at CTIA, they’d all be in jail!

Finally, on the fun side, I ran into these two guys of Glider Gloves that may have perfected the winter glove that can be used on all these touchscreen devices.  I got a pair from a competitor last year and they stunk.  I could barely use them to open an app, they were cold and after one season were falling apart. These gloves I tried out were thick, so felt warm, but I was even able to text with them!  Well worth checking out if you live in a cold area. Leave it to some guys from Toronto to get winter clothes right!

The New York Times on Sunday had a great article about some research Microsoft was doing in their data centers.  Using high-speed, 60 GHz directional antennas, they are able to reliably alleviate traffic-congested servers by wirelessly moving traffic to less congested servers, right there in the data center.  The design sped up traffic by at least 45 percent in 95 percent of the cases tested.  It’s secure because it is point-to-point–and the signal can be encrypted.  The 60 GHz band is an unlicensed band which features a large amount of bandwidth  globally.  The large bandwidth means that a very high volume of information can be transmitted wirelessly and reliably–specifications would pin typical throughput at almost 5 Gbps, compared to approximately 50 Mbps over most WiFi systems today.  Besides data centers, multiple applications can benefit from this spectrum and is being looked at to support wireless HDTV, broadband cable replacements, wireless laptop docking stations and backhaul (like in the data center).  The IEEE is working on the 802.11ad specification to bring this into homes and integrate it into WiFi systems using multi-band radios.  I don’t expect to see this widely deployed in the next few years, but it shows that today’s capabilities are reaching beyond what the average wireless use case is today–not your parent’s AM radio!