BlackBerry, Google Team Up On Enterprise-Friendly Android OS

BlackBerry and Google further solidified their relationship Thursday by teaming up to create a more enterprise-friendly version of the Android operating system.

The marriage will integrate BlackBerry's BES12 security software into Google's Android 5.0 Lollipop build to tighten the operating system's security features, as well as ensure tight integration with Google Play for Work for increased application management.

"If Google and BlackBerry can merge their strengths together and create a business platform, it could really add value to organizations," said Michael Kraner, CEO of Primary Support Solutions, a New York-based BlackBerry partner. "I think people really enjoyed their BlackBerries at a time, and if somehow you can combine the features that they loved about BlackBerry with Google it would be a marriage that consumers would be interested in."

[Related: BlackBerry Partners With Google To Secure Android For Work Devices]

BlackBerry's BES12, which is compliant with multiple OS platforms, contains several comprehensive enterprise mobility management features, such as the control over device usage and security of critical data.

These features will integrate into the Android operating system to give it capabilities such as endpoint management through one consolidated console, app-wrapping and containerization features, and secured workspaces.

Robby Hill, founder and CEO of HillSouth, a Florence, S.C.-based BlackBerry partner, said that clients with sensitive data who need more secure operating systems would reap the most benefits from the new partnership.

"With BYOD, the standard in most companies' mobile platforms have become more interchangeable," he said. "However, in health care and financial services and other industries that are heavily regulated, there is always going to be a desire to have more security and we will be looking carefully to enterprise-friendly Android solutions as they roll out to assist our clients who need something more than the typical BYOD offerings."

Meanwhile, the backing of Google's mainstream Android operating system will boost BlackBerry's presence in the mobile space, where the company has been struggling to maintain a foothold.

According to a February 2014 IDC report, the research firm's latest operating system market-share study, BlackBerry's operating system fell behind Android and Apple's iOS in 2014 by significant margins. Android held 81.5 percent of the 2014 market share, iOS held 14.8 percent, and BlackBerry lagged behind with a mere 0.4 percent of OS share with its BlackBerry 10 operating system.

Google and BlackBerry's tightened relationship also plays into rumors that BlackBerry's future devices could ship rigged with Android operating systems as opposed to the company's traditional BlackBerry 10 OS.

The two companies have an existing partnership, as BlackBerry in February said it would team with Google to secure and manage phones equipped with Android for Work, a code platform keeping mobile data for business and personal means separate for end users.

In addition to integrating its BES 12 security software into Google's Android 5.0 Lollipop, BlackBerry updated its BES12 platform to support the Apple Device Enrollment Program, which simplifies the enrollment of corporate-issued iOS devices, and integrated BlackBerry Secure Connect Plus, its solution for secure, behind-the-firewall access to enterprise content without VPN infrastructure, with Android for Work, BlackBerry 10 and Samsung Knox Workplace.

PUBLISHED JULY 10, 2015