BlackBerry plans security feature for Android, iPhone

A BlackBerry salesperson displays a BlackBerry Z10 during the launch of the BlackBerry 10 smartphone in Mumbai February 25, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Vivek Prakash

By Euan Rocha

TORONTO | Fri Mar 15, 2013 10:48am EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry will offer technology to separate and make secure both work and personal data on mobile devices powered by Google Inc's Android platform and by Apple Inc's iOS operating system, the company said on Thursday.

The new feature could help BlackBerry sell high-margin services to enterprise clients even if many, or all, of their workers are using smartphones made by BlackBerry's competitors. That may be crucial for the company as it has lost a vast amount of market share to the iPhone and to Android devices, such as Samsung Electronics Co's (005930.KS) Galaxy line.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said he expects BlackBerry's device management software to gain traction this year, and boost revenue next year.

"Supporting devices with the best, most secure, and easiest-to-use mobile solution should enable RIM to transform into what we believe is an attractive model," he said in a note to clients.

The offering could help BlackBerry shore up its profitable services business. BlackBerry's shares plunged in December after it said it would change the way it charges for services, cutting fees for customers that do not need advanced security and other enhanced features.

The new Secure Work Space feature will be available before the end of June, and will be managed through BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, the platform that allows BlackBerry's corporate and government clients to handle devices using different operating systems on their networks.

BlackBerry said the feature fences off corporate email, calendar, contacts, tasks, memos, web browsing and document editing from personal apps and content, which could be less secure.

BALANCING ACT

In a bid to regain market share and return to profit, BlackBerry introduced a new line of smartphones powered by its BlackBerry 10 operating system earlier this year.

The touch screen version, dubbed the Z10, is on sale in more than 20 countries, while a device called the Q10, with a physical keyboard, will be available in April.

The new devices have a feature called Balance, which keeps corporate and personal data separate. It allows information technology departments to manage the corporate content on a device, while ensuring privacy for users, who can store and use personal apps and content on the same phone without corporate oversight.

With Secure Work Space, "we're extending as many of these (Balance) features as possible to other platforms," David Smith, BlackBerry's head of mobile enterprise computing, said in a statement.

BlackBerry's move comes as Samsung, whose Galaxy devices have gained great popularity, attempts to make itself a more viable option for business customers with security features such as Samsung Knox and SAFE, or Samsung for Enterprise.

BlackBerry said Secure Work Space means clients would not need to configure and manage expensive virtual private network VPN.L infrastructure in order to give workers' devices access to data and applications that reside behind corporate firewalls.

"Secure Work Space also offers the same end-to-end encryption for data in transit as we have offered on BlackBerry for many years, so there is no need for a VPN," Peter Devenyi, head of enterprise software, said in an interview.

SELLING SERVICES

The new feature could also help stem declines in BlackBerry's service revenue. That business has long been a cash cow for BlackBerry because of the large clients that pay to use its extensive network and security offerings.

However, the company has been under pressure to reduce its infrastructure access fees, and opted to do so during the transition to BlackBerry 10. Due to the changes, BlackBerry's service revenue is expected to decline over the course of this year.

Giving its large array of corporate clients the ability to manage BlackBerry devices, along with Android smartphones and iPhones on their networks might encourage both corporate and government clients to continue to pay for and use BlackBerry's device management services.

BlackBerry plans to report quarterly results on March 28.

Last week, Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said sales of the Z10 had surpassed BlackBerry's expectations in emerging markets such as India, where cheaper entry-level phones are typically popular.

On Wednesday, the company said it had received an order for 1 million BlackBerry 10 smartphones - the largest order it has ever had from a single customer - and its shares jumped.

BlackBerry's volatile stock closed up 8.2 percent at $15.65 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, while its Toronto-listed shares rose by a similar margin to C$16.04.

The shares pared gains on Thursday, falling 2.3 percent to $15.29 in late morning trading on the Nasdaq. In Toronto, its shares were 2 percent lower at C$15.72. (Reporting by Euan Rocha and Allison Martell; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Lisa Von Ahn and Peter Galloway)

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HTC Makes One the Android to Beat

HTC is trying to make a comeback in the smartphone world with its new Android phone HTC One. The $200 device that will hit the market on April 19 is "very slick and elegant," Katherine Boehret says in her review.

In the crowded world of Android, it pays to be bold. HTC has spent years pairing its striking hardware designs with memorable software overlays for Android. But Samsung has surged ahead with a few bold moves of its own.

The HTC One has a sharp display, an ultra-pixel camera and features such as special video clips and news feed, Katie Boehret says on digits. Photo: Getty Images.

In an attempt to get some of its mojo back, HTC created a new smartphone with an old name: the HTC One. This $200 device (with two-year contract) will be available on April 19 from AT&T and Sprint. AT&T will also offer a $300 device with twice the memory, and a T-Mobile model is coming later this spring.

I enjoyed using an AT&T model and can recommend it to anyone looking for a new Android phone. It comes loaded with the latest version of Android and HTC's usual Sense software overlay, which makes the One look and behave differently than other Android smartphones. In the future, the HTC One will be able to run Facebook Home, which puts the social network front and center. And I captured several extraordinary photos with this smartphone's camera.

Still, it wasn't flawless. I found the Back and Home icons didn't always glow when I used the Facebook app, leaving me wondering how to navigate away from the app. And icons on the camera screen didn't change from horizontal to vertical when I held the phone in portrait view. HTC attributed the former to a light sensor that may need tweaking and the latter to a bug it plans to fix via a software update later this year.

HTC HTC One has a 4.7-inch touch screen that rivals the iPhone 5 and a high-quality camera.

If looks are important to you, you'll like this smartphone's design. It's elegant and thin with a curved back that's made to fit your palm. With a 4.7-inch touch screen at 468 pixels per inch, this display outshines Apple's iPhone 5 and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4. Its aluminum build gives it a sturdy feel—but makes it slightly heavier than the S4 and iPhone 5. The One's aluminum back felt a bit slippery at times and I dropped it on several occasions.

Voice calls sounded crisp and clear and though I didn't perform a formal battery test, I found myself using the One for a full day without a recharge. AT&T's 4G LTE network proved speedy for email, Web browsing and various apps, including Google Maps for navigation around Washington, D.C. In downtown D.C., my average download speed was 14.5 megabits per second, peaking at 18.78 MBPS, while uploads averaged 9.84 MBPS. This isn't quite as fast as Verizon's LTE, but it wasn't enough to notice any drag.

The HTC One camera aims to dispel the megapixel myth that has flummoxed people—that a higher megapixel count always equals better photos. This smartphone's camera is measured at 2 UltraPixels, which are larger than ordinary pixels and are designed to capture better quality images. HTC uses a better sensor that can capture 300% more light than many 13-megapixel cameras, an improved processor and optical-image stabilization, among other things.

I was skeptical at first. But I captured shots in a dark room with the lights off that looked crisp and clear—not blurry or washed out by a flash. I took a photo of someone in a dimly lit chapel and it looked as if the person was in a room with plenty of light.

Outside on a sunny day, this camera was just showing off. I captured many shots of spring flowers and a cherry blossom tree, sunlight glistening on flower petals and tree branches. Of the three smartphones in my bag, I repeatedly reached for the HTC One to take photos.

If you aren't crazy about capturing videos that take up a lot of storage space on your phone, Zoes might be your speed. These are 3-second videos that are captured by shifting the camera capture button to Zoe. I took several Zoes, but found them unsatisfying. I captured a train whizzing by, flowers blowing in the wind and my husband making a funny face. They showed up in my phone's photo gallery as moving pictures that reminded me of those portraits that hang on the walls in Harry Potter movies. Yet, I didn't know quite what to do with them.

Enter HTC Zoe Share. This is a smart option that shares many photos and Zoes at once. Shares are emailed via a Web link that lasts for 180 days. I shared these links from my phone with friends who used computers, iPhones and iPads to open them.

The Zoes appeared mixed in with the still shots in an on-screen collage. But if you're not using HTC Zoe Share, these three-second Zoe clips are pretty much stuck on your phone. If you try to share them via Facebook or Twitter, they appear as still images that can't be emailed. And why would you really want to share just three seconds of anything?

A new interface called BlinkFeed appears on the HTC One's home screen with a tap on its tile-like icon. BlinkFeed is meant to give you bits of information as you glance down at your phone in line at the coffee shop or while in the elevator.

You set up BlinkFeed to display content from news sources of your choice like the Associated Press, Huffington Post, ESPN and others. These feeds can be mixed in with your Twitter and Facebook news feeds.

The BlinkFeed design is attractive, showing photos and text in a Flipboard-like mesh that you can quickly scroll up or down. To read more about an article, tap on it to see a short summary, then follow a link to read the entire article.

Those looking for a new take on Android, and especially a better smartphone camera, should consider the HTC One.

—Email katie.boehret@wsj.com A version of this article appeared April 10, 2013, on page D2 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: HTC Makes the One the Android to Beat.

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