‘Growth of workplace mobility has increased the demand for business apps’

Does BlackBerry (PlayBook tablet/smartphones) support any enterprise apps versions?

The growth of workplace mobility has increased the demand for business applications and thus the opportunity for enterprise developers.

BlackBerry does support enterprise app versions by vendors. For instance: With the Cisco WebEx app on BlackBerry 10 we are able to schedule and join Cisco WebEx meetings, as well as invite and view attendees, chat, screen share, and more. Cisco WebEx has become a key business and collaboration tool, and on BlackBerry 10, it's one of the key apps that helps to connect with colleagues to get more done while on the go.

Citrix Podio on BlackBerry 10 smartphones is built on HTML5, providing a powerful work collaboration platform that enables you to work the way you want to, where you want to, and using tools that perfectly fit your team's projects and workflows. Citrix Podio on Blackberry 10 brings collaboration and business processes together through workspaces and apps that are powerful, collaborative, and social alternatives to spreadsheets, documents, and email.

SAP has developed enterprise-grade finance apps on the BB10 platform using the SAP Mobile Platform. With the SAP Mobile Platform, the mobile app development community can build apps that can run on both the new BB10 and the existing BlackBerry platforms and devices.

How can a user differentiate and select between enterprise apps and other consumer apps available on the tablet/smartphone?

An enterprise app is designed to fulfill an organization's business and industry needs. These apps intend to drive business productivity of an organization. For instance, for an office requirement-an app that will help to view and operate Microsoft office files, powerpoint excel, emails will serve the purpose. On the other side, consumer apps are designed not only to inform and boost productivity, they also act as a source for entertainment.

Depending upon the use and requirement, a consumer can easily distinguish an app from a consumer app and make selections.

 

Can you share some specific instances?

Some specific enterprise apps are-for healthcare, MphRx Connect offers cloud-based and mobile-based solutions for storing, retrieving, and sharing patient health records among hospitals, physicians, and patients across geographies on mobile devices (all BB platforms) and web interfaces;

Deltecs Infotech, the pioneers in delivering mobile learning solutions, developed the Mlearning App called Drona; a mobile learning tool that transforms the learning content into mobile applications that can be analyzed. In the retail space, Perfetti van Melle India (‘PVM India') manufactures candies, the chewing gum company deployed BlackBerry smartphones, instead of laptops, and software license improved employee productivity.

BlackBerry BES 10 enables organizations to embrace consumerization by delivering a comprehensive business and productivity app portfolio, an enterprise-grade app management framework and a low-cost app development environment. BlackBerry offers loads of consumers apps for information and entertainment, some of them include the IPL mailer app, travel app mailer, Gameloft app, Whats app, etc.