Virtual Blackberry on Windows Mobile
Interesting article on a couple of sites this morning referencing a release of a virtualised blackberry software instance that can operate on Window Mobile 6.x devices. Now the actual concept has been touted since early 2007 but the most recent articles indicate that it’s nearly ready for release.
I did have some links in here to pictures of the virtualised blackberry instance running on the new HTC touch. However just last night the pictures along with the video I had linked in this article were pulled. I’m not sure why but the site says “due to unforseen circumstances we have decided to remove the article”. Perhaps they were worried there “insider” was going to be exposed or perhpas RIM had a quiet word in their ear?
You can find a couple of screenshots here though , someone copied them before they were taken down
Anyway, the idea of a virtualised instance of the blackberry software is an interesting one, it does perplex me a little though. I’m trying to understand where this would fit in out there in the real world.
Blackberry is obviously regarded as the top enterprise mobile email solution, one that is hugely popular and went unchallenged for some time. Microsoft Exchange 2007 introduced push emal functionality to offer an alternative to the Blackberry Enterprise Server product. This push email functionality can be utilised by Windows Mobile handsets as well as the iPhone which I feel has brought some much needed competition into the market place.
So why have Blackberry decided to develop software to run the blackberry on windows mobile? What kind of usage are people out there going to get from it? I can think of a couple of possible usage scenarios.
- Switching from Blackberry to Windows mobile and Exchange 2007 push email. You could distribute the new handsets and still utilise the blackberry email delivery allowing you to phase cutover.
- Your users may want to use Windows Mobile devices as their phone but the company deliverys mobile email via blackberry.
- Software Updates, if you have a virtual instance you can just redeploy an updated version as and when it comes out, Possibly in a similar way to iPhone App Store updates.
It will be interesting to see how it works out for Blackberry and what the uptake is when it is finally released.
