RIM to launch BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion will launch BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, its latest smartphone management tool for organisations, in India as part of its first phase of the global launch in 20 countries. The high-end enterprise mobility management solution for the first time will go beyond managing BlackBerry and will allow companies to manage smartphones and tablets based on Android and iOS as well. 

The new enterprise solution comes a week before the global launch of BlackBerry10 smartphones. The Canadian firm, however, would launch BB 10 devices in India only in the second half of February. 

Sunil Lalvani, RIM India's director for enterprise sales, told ET that since BES 10 will allow a non-BlackBerry user to get corporate email via pushmail on their existing devices, companies would not have to spend on purchasing new smartphones for their employees. 

With BES 10, RIM has modified its billing mechanism to be based on the number of users and not the number of devices. RIM will charge corporate clients $99, or about Rs 5,300, per user for this tool irrespective of the number of devices or the operating system. 

RIM officials said the cost per user would depend on volumes and the level of security offered. For instance, a company of 400 employees buying BES 10 may be charged around $50, or Rs 2,700, per user. Also, senior executives may require higher security and therefore may be charged higher than mid-management level employees. 

Lalvani said existing enterprise customers would be given an option to trade the existing BlackBerry enterprise service with BES 10. 

According to market research firm IDC, global mobile enterprise management market will grow to $1.8 billion (about Rs 9,600 crore) by 2016 and a tenth of the revenue will come from Asia Pacific. Lalvani said India will have a lion's share in this contribution. 

RIM is the third largest smartphone seller in India with 12.1% market share in the first half of 2012, according to Cybermedia Research. Ingram Micro, the official distributors of BlackBerry devices, will work with nine mobile phone companies including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications to deploy the BES 10 servers and the IT policy for RIM in India.