Apple should buy RIM

[Vanraw]

If I was apple I would buy RIM. Now is the time. Android is strong, windows 8 is trying to break into the market, so the Feds would not stop it.

Now that RIM has made its failing attempt with BB10, there seems to be only 2 options. Get bought, or slowly ride into default.

Why would this be good for Apple? Because of BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) which has a place in almost every major corporations IT infrastructure. It would crack the one nut that Apple is failing at (as is Android). The enterprise.

Buying RIM would rocket Apple stock to 1k. And doing it would be like a rounding error to the interest they are making on their cash.

[Grieve]

Terrible idea. RIMM would be at least $10b, maybe more. And Apple is already doing way better than RIM in the Enterprise - they have pretty much caught up on all aspects of Enterprise, and Apple Configurator is way easier to use than BES. RIMM has less than a third of the Enterprise market now, and it's dropping constantly. Anyway, BES supports iOS and Android as well these days.

Plus Canada would not let a US corporation buy it.

[Breand]

I have a co-worker who complains daily that Apple needs to start buying other companies with all the cash on hand they have and such a limited product range.

[Vanraw]

That one of my main points breand. Apple only has one serious problem right now. Lack of product diversification.

Terrible idea. RIMM would be at least $10b, maybe more. And Apple is already doing way better than RIM in the Enterprise - they have pretty much caught up on all aspects of Enterprise,

No, you need to put your rose color glasses down for a sec. I work for a large enterprise and run technical support for enterprise customers. Its a little company called Verizon. And I can tell you that Apple and android for that matter, are no where close to being trusted for the enterprise let alone have they reached productivity levels expected and previously experienced by bb.

Apple has not, and is not close, to truly cracking the enterprise. Also I don't think rimm will cost 10b, but if it did it would be nothing for apple to do it. It would open doors into enterprise IT organizations that they are no where close to opening. And provide access to more patents they can sue people on....

Most IT organizations talking about apple or android, are only looking at it from a "how do we protect ourselves from this crap" perspective, not excitement over productivity.Levels

[Jakensama]

How big a deal is what IT monkeys want anymore? The other owrkers have long since broken out of the "you have to use a blackberry" shackles at most places and get the phones they want, right?

[Vanraw]

Most network security organizations in a major corporation should not let your iphone / android have direct access to your company email / web pages. So they are installing BES like servers such as Good <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www1.good.com/">http://www1.good.com/</a><!-- m --> . Its a server complex like BES that has a client on he phone that allows for secure access to mail servers like Microsoft exchange, as well as Intranet web sites and such. They also use secure versions of HD Office and such for document viewing securely on the device.

We use Good and BES. From a work productivity perspective BB and BES is much better then any of the bubblegum chewing facebook phones out there. I use a Droid 4 because it has a keyboard, but it and Good still is far behind what BES did. I don't know if this is because of patents and such.

The big issue is that apple is not taken seriously in the enterprise. Yes they have a couple of fan boy companies, but not serious market share. If they bought RIM and absorbed the technology into IOS they would have a foot in the door to talk seriously to the enterprise.

If Apple bought a company that had serious hooks into corporate America's IT enterprises, it would open up a whole new market and revenue stream for them. They have barley scratched the surface. BB stock is going continue to crash. This is going to be a penny stock soon. Which means it could be a good buy.

[Grieve]

I work for a major corporation - not as big as VZ, but at $52B market cap hardly tiny. Security is a large part of their business. I have been able to access work e-mail and VPN into company servers for years.

Blackberry is being replaced by iOS in the Enterprise at a rapid pace, and that is only going to increase. BYOD overrides everything.

http://allthingsd.com/20121129/rim-is-lo...d-android/

And again, the latest version of BES now supports iOS and Android.

I honestly don't think buying RIMM would do anything for Apple except cost them a huge amount in resctructuring charges. Are they going to keep Blackberry phones and Playbook going? No way. That means they have to lay off 1000s of workers...which is another reason why Canada would never allow the deal to go through.

RIM has a market cap of almost $7b right now. No way any deal would happen without a large premium - I'd say $10b at a minimum.

[strife]

I don't understand why MS doesn't just take over the business phone industry... all they would have to do is integrate with aAD and they would have a major leg up on ios and android..

[Grieve]

aAD? Do you mean Active Directory or Azure Active Directory?

[strife]

aAD? Do you mean Active Directory or Azure Active Directory?

just AD, active directory.

[Grieve]

What do you want to do with AD? For me, VPNing in and then using remote desktop works well.

[strife]

I want it to be integrated and secure. One of our main issues we've faced at work (I work for a bank) is none of the built in shit is secure enough which causes us to use 3rd party software, which was all designed by morons and isn't user friendly at all. We need built in encryption, the ability to remote wipe phones, etc.. None of the phone OS's right now out of the box are capable of doing what someone at a business that requires privacy and encryption and all that security bullshit requires.

[Grieve]

Don't know about Android, but you can remote wipe an iPhone very easily - it's built in and free. And the Exchange connection for e-mail and so on is fully encrypted. In fact all stored data on the phone is encrypted. My company requires all iDevices to be locked with a passcode, which is a pain in the ass, but protects it pretty well. And RSA token codes are needed to VPN.

There are a few things missing I'd like to see, like being able to set Out Of Office from the phone, shared calenders, etc, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are including in iOS 7 this year.

Ironically, as you'll see in the article below, iOS is ahead of Microsoft (Windows Phone 8) right now in terms of mobile security:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-techno...oid-205766

[Vanraw]

None of the phone OS's right now out of the box are capable of doing what someone at a business that requires privacy and encryption and all that security bullshit requires.

Having remote wipe is to late. Good to have for a lost phone, but it a bad guy stole the phone with the intent to steal info, remote wipe is too late.

Checkout good.com. We run it on all phones except blackberry. It supports ios, windows, android. It provides a secure access to infrastructure and allows for you to control access and security. We are also using it for byod. The nice thing about it is it provides centralized control on multi operating systems.

[Vanraw]

There are a few things missing I'd like to see, like being able to set Out Of Office from the phone, shared calenders, etc, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are including in iOS 7 this year.

Good does all that, on multi Os. Who cares if apple or one manufacture does it. The last thing we want to do in IT is manage 5 different phone manufactures who come out with a upgrade every 6 months.

[strife]

Good is trash. That was the first set of software we used... everyone hated it..

Another thing is managing the security settings on the phones(like forcing passwords) through a centralized system . Windows does this with ad which would make sense if you could also use ad on phones.

[Vanraw]

Good has come along way. Initially it was crap. But its much better now then it was 2 years ago. The best part of it is the multi vendor support. Which is what RIM is trying to do, but should have done 2 years ago when they had a chance. But they choose the propritary road, which has why they will be a penny stock or bought in the next 1 to 2 years.

So now BES supports multi vendor, but too little tyoo late, mostly because most people dont think Rim is going to survive. Unless they had a suger daddy.