BlackBerry and Google Announce Partnership for Android Business

Rumors about BlackBerry entering the Android smartphone market continue to pop up, even though the Canadian company was never explicit on the matter.

In the last statement offered by the company's CEO John Chen, he says that BlackBerry will launch an Android smartphone, but only if it can make it secure. Well, it looks like BlackBerry might try to make Android secure, or at least is working with Google on that matter. Today, the Canadian company has announced a new partnership with Google, which focuses on enterprise business. Both companies are now working together to implement some of the most important BES12 features into Android.

Google needs BlackBerry's expertise in enterprise security, while BlackBerry needs to tap into the huge Android market that could bring the company even more customers.

The partnership focuses on application management

Although BES12 already features Android Lollipop support, BlackBerry's security solution will now be implemented with Google Play Work, thus focusing on application management. According to BlackBerry, “new features are now available through Android and BES12 that enable organizations to further secure enterprise and personal data on Android devices, set new levels of hardware based encryption, and ensure tight integration with Google Play for Work, for increased application management, while delivering a consistent end-user and management experience across their Android fleet.”

These are all the details provided by BlackBerry and Google for the moment, but we expect the Canadian company to issue an official statement in the next couple of days. Until then, BlackBerry has announced the launch of BES12 version 12.2, which features enhanced multi-OS support. This is just another first step for implementing BlackBerry's security solution into major operating systems other then BlackBerry.

It's unclear what will happen with BlackBerry 10 or the company's devices division, but for the time being, the Canadian company has no reason to abandon any of them.

BlackBerry BES12 + Android

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