BlackBerry and Samsung announced its partnership on Thursday to expand each other's mobile security technology and drive sales from more business customers.
The deal is expected to increase BlackBerry's revenue by $500 million through its BlackBerry Enterprise Service 12 (BES12) sales. BES12 is the company's mobile security software. Samsung, on the other hand, expects that the partnership will allow its devices to penetrate the business market. The South Korean smartphone maker needs to expand its products to business customers since the consumer market has welcomed other players that offer cheaper devices.
Aside from Samsung, the Canadian company also teamed up with cloud company Salesforce.com, mobile distributor Brightstar Corp., and wireless carriers Verizon, Orange and Vodafone, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The deal "isn't about one company displacing the other," said John Sims, head of BlackBerry's enterprise business. "This is about one and one makes three."
Samsung devices will start offering the "highly secure mobility solution" beginning 2015. BlackBerry updated its software to add video-conferencing in its messaging app and a system that will let employers and employees share usage costs.
"The partnership with Samsung is a very big deal," John Jackson, a technology analyst at IDC, said to Reuters. "It's hard to imagine a partnership with more significant practical impact potential."
BlackBerry CEO John Chen is confident that with the long-term partnership with Samsung, the company is on track with its direction. The company is also looking at investing in the "Internet of Things" in the future, according to Forbes.
"I recall a year ago when I first started I was watching CNBC and one of our competitors was making fun of us," said Chen. "My advice to competitors is that we are not only a point product company, we are an EMM [Enterprise Mobility Management] solution, very broad and very deep. They need to understand that. They need to work for a living rather than make fun of us."
