And Now, Back to Enterprise Handheld Devices

Amidst the slew of announcements and reviews of the newly-released second generation Apple, Inc. iPhone, other vendors were somehow able to release news about alternative handheld devices. News this week comes from Palm, Inc., Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM), and Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Focal Points:

• Palm, along with Sprint Nextel Corp., rolled out the latest addition to its Treo line of handheld devices. The new Microsoft Corp. Windows Mobile 6.1-based Treo 800w includes meaningful upgrades including the first time Wi-Fi is incorporated on a Treo. Along with support for 802.11 b/g (Wi-Fi), the new device also includes a Global Positioning System (GPS) processor, a higher resolution 320x320 pixel touch screen, more compact footprint, and support for Evolution Data Optimized (EVDO) Rev. A. The Rev A. specification improves download speeds by 30 to 50 percent and can advance upload speeds by up to seven to ten times. Software includes Microsoft's Office Mobile Suite for creating and editing Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word documents, instant messaging applications, a task manager, and a voice recorder. As with previous Treo devices, the battery is user swappable. Recent statistics demonstrate that the company has significantly improved its placement in the smartphone category, nearly doubling its market share compared with last quarter, due in no small part to the consumer-oriented Palm Centro. Pricing starts at $249.99 with the purchase of a two-year contract.
• A critical flaw was found in RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) that targets the PDF distiller component of the BlackBerry Attachment Service. The exploit encourages users to open a malicious PDF file attachment which can then compromise servers running BES, not individual devices. The company ranked the vulnerability's severity as a 9.0 out a possible 10 scale. Administrators running BES version 4.1 Service Pack 6 (4.1.6) for Microsoft Exchange or IBM Corp. Lotus Domino, or BES for Novell Inc. GroupWise 4.1.4, are instructed to download a series of updates from RIM's Web site. Last month, the company announced record quarterly revenues of $2.24 billion, up 107 percent from the same quarter the previous year. Net income improved similarly, arriving at $482.5 million compared with the $223.2 million realized in the prior year.
• Sun released Mobile Enterprise Platform (MEP) 1.0 to general availability after only a few months in beta. MEP 1.0 uses Sun's Java Cryptography Architecture (JCA) to securely transmit data between handheld devices and applications running on Sun servers. Corporate synchronization can be enabled with enterprise applications using open standards including Java Micro Edition (Java ME), MySQL database, and Sun's GlassFish Enterprise Server. MEP supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) transmissions, Triple DES, device encryption, and abilities for administrators to wipe lost or stolen devices. Adapters for JDBC, Oracle Corp., SAP AG., and Siebel Systems, Inc. applications are available immediately.

Experton Group believes Palm's latest Treo offering, though only currently available for Sprint's network, offers enterprises with a compelling Windows Mobile-based alternative for enterprise mobile e-mail and applications access. The inclusion of key features including Wi-Fi and GPS puts Palm back into the "relevant" category, as recent Treo devices have offered minimal upgrades over prior iterations and since the line's launch three years ago. With a compelling price point and real enterprise capabilities, not the least of which is the Treo's excellent QWERTY keyboard, enterprise executives can keep Palm at towards the top of their consideration pile.

Enterprise administrators running BES should work to patch the PDF vulnerability as quickly as possible given the criticality and severity of the flaw. Still, RIM maintains a more comprehensive and full-featured enterprise handheld device management, security, and support infrastructure than any of its major competitors. With new devices aimed at both enterprise and consumer needs, RIM maintains one of the most attractive lines of devices capable of meeting distinct user sets requiring synchronized e-mail access and Web surfing. As recent revenue and income reports imply, IT executives should expect for RIM to remain atop the heap of enterprise-capable handheld devices for the foreseeable future. Disruptive technologies including Google, Inc.'s Android offering and Nokia Corp.'s acquisition and move of the Symbian OS platform to open source could ultimately affect that standing, but not in the near term.

Lastly, enterprises should continue to evaluate enterprise infrastructure offerings capable of easily extending applications to handheld devices without requiring significant retooling. IT executives must work with line of business and enterprise executives to ensure that business requirements, corporate security policies, and user expectations can be properly addressed before wide scale investments and roll outs.