BlackBerry Slams Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Mobility Management

Produce - apples and oranges woman

Gartner took another stab at BlackBerry with the release of their Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Mobility Management. This is a yearly report from them which this year places BlackBerry in the leader space of the “niche” quadrant. This is nowhere near ideal especially since it seems to maintain the misconception that BES 10 is not able to manage iOS and Android. As many of us know that is no longer the case for awhile now.

For that reason John Sims, President of Enterprise Services at BlackBerry, has taken to their blog to tear apart what he calls “Perception vs Reality” at Gartner. Nothing crazy new here but definitely worth noting:

Perception: BlackBerry has a small percentage of the enterprise market.

Reality: BlackBerry is the market leader – and we lead by a significant margin with an enterprise customer base that is larger than our top three competitors combined.

Perception: BlackBerry can only manage BlackBerry devices.

Reality: BlackBerry is multi-platform. We’ve expanded our BES10 and BBM messaging platform to include iOS and Android, and later this year we will add Windows Phone. And, by enabling our BlackBerry 10 devices to be managed by select MDM partners, BlackBerry will provide organizations with more flexibility and choice with their mobile device environments.

Perception: BlackBerry has not driven wide adoption of its multi-platform BES solution.

Reality: BlackBerry is seeing significant penetration of its BES10 multi-platform solution with nearly 33,000 commercial and test servers installed to date. With the new BlackBerry EZ Pass migration program, we have also issued more than 800,000 new BES10 licenses since launching the program in March. Migrations to BES10 include customers trading in licenses from other MDM vendors such as AirWatch, MobileIron and Good Technology.

Perception: Other companies can do what BlackBerry does.

Reality: BlackBerry has the largest install base, an unparalleled global infrastructure, and the deepest understanding of how to provide secure, productive mobile collaboration and communications in the enterprise space. In addition, as of March, BlackBerry had $2.7 billion in cash and we are on track to achieve our goal of becoming cash-flow positive by the end of fiscal year 2015. Meanwhile, two of the firms Gartner named in the leaders quadrant of the MQ are experiencing their own financial woes:

  • Good Technology burned through $54 million in cash in 2013, leaving a mere $42 million at the end of last year. Despite tripling losses, it recently filed for an initial public offering hoping that this provides them a way to pull back from the brink of extinction.
  • MobileIron had revenue of $105.6 million in 2013, but its net loss was still $32.5 million. While its 2013 revenue was more than double the prior year, it included $21.1 million from perpetual license deals that were signed and delivered in prior years.
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