[pg101]

Just got off phone with an IT gal at my employer. I work for one of the "big 5" banks in Canada....not #1 but not #5 either....we have branches around the world. That's all the hints I will give.

They are preparing to go BB10 from day 1....both phones and playbook. The gal who has an personal iPhone even says the BB10 has a better experience, the ideal BYOD product, and keyboards ability to learn your typing errors and predict/correct is amazing. Every third word from her mouth was "sexy" when she was describing the features to me. She sounded very excited to talk about it.

On a side note, my bank tested apple already as a replacement, and concluded that Apple still has significant hurdles to go through before it can be as safe and secure at BB. Needless to say, every other bank and insurance company here in Canada will likely come to the same conclusion, and will still continue to use BB over Apple. That is the bottom line!

[tinoman]

Did she get to test it at one of the consumer forums or something?

[the_kid_hartford]

I don't like rumors or gossip but my wife works at one of the top 3 banks in the US, no joke, and they are BB all the way....She just got an upgrade and her choices were all BB......My neighbor is a Manhattan trader, we talked just this past weekend, he said, BB has time but not much and he carries a BB for work and an Ishat for pleasure.....BTW, his Ishat just imploded all his data......HAHAHAHA

[pg101]

Yes. She said she was at a RIM event recently for IT folks

[VeGiTo]

Great news. I'm from Canada and the BB definitely manage to retain share better here than the US. Now we just need to hear the IT Dept of major US corporations to make the same kind of commitment for BB10/PlayBook, and we will have a winner.

[mikeo007]

Boy, that's a big call to make. Adopting something blindly before its even available. Especially for a business as big as a bank. When several major worldwide banks decided to adopt the iPhone, they were testing it for months before accepting it.

I work in healthcare and they removed Blackberry as an offering shortly after I got my 9900. Different businesses, but our IT dept has no intention of even exploring BB10 at this point.

[mithrazor]

Boy, that's a big call to make. Adopting something blindly before its even available. Especially for a business as big as a bank. When several major worldwide banks decided to adopt the iPhone, they were testing it for months before accepting it.

I work in healthcare and they removed Blackberry as an offering shortly after I got my 9900. Different businesses, but our IT dept has no intention of even exploring BB10 at this point.

It's not blind if she went to a Consumer Forum for IT managers. Where it's generally an information session on what pros it brings to businesses over competitors.

[iwasspartacus]

I attended the enterprise and consumer forums this week in Calgary. The enterprise forum was packed and there was lots of interest. It was great to see BB10 in action although the build didn't seem as stable as being demo'ed on videos I've seen to date. The user identity learning keyboard (or whaterever) was very cool, hub is great, peek is great (would have loved to read the attachements on a couple of the roadmap emails that were coming in!!). The crowd was really interested, was corporate and again - lots and lots of people.

During Q&A there were lots of questions, people digging into BES, Fusion, feature-set. A lot of this info was review if you visited crackberry (although I learned some Fusion features that should be highlighted by crackberry ... were very cool). BBreps stated they couldn't answer all questions at this point in cycle ... would not answer questions about 'Voice Control' as displayed during a demo. They were implying lots of cool surprises at launch.

I wanted to steal one of the bberry red 'ping' that were set-up on tables around the room but totally jammed out.

[Gelzz]

On a side note, my bank tested apple already as a replacement, and concluded that Apple still has significant hurdles to go through before it can be as safe and secure at BB. Needless to say, every other bank and insurance company here in Canada will likely come to the same conclusion, and will still continue to use BB over Apple. That is the bottom line!

I totally agree with this too - I do also work for "the BIG 5" and yes Apple does have a long way. It has been tested and as of right now - no one's leaning towards the idea

[NFLPLAYBOOK]

BB10 is bridging the gap between personal and business very well. That's a lot of phones and tablets headed to the banking industry.

[mikeo007]

It's not blind if she went to a Consumer Forum for IT managers. Where it's generally an information session on what pros it brings to businesses over competitors.

Marketing info is no substitute for thorough testing. I'm think this person may have instead been saying "we're going to start a trial of Bb10 as soon as its available." That would be a much more responsible approach that I would expect from a major bank.

[mrfreetruth]

Boy, that's a big call to make. Adopting something blindly before its even available. Especially for a business as big as a bank. When several major worldwide banks decided to adopt the iPhone, they were testing it for months before accepting it.

I work in healthcare and they removed Blackberry as an offering shortly after I got my 9900. Different businesses, but our IT dept has no intention of even exploring BB10 at this point.

Why is it a big call to make?BB is tried tested and true. Everything else is garbage and any corporation or business using anything other then BB is just asking for trouble. I know you hate positive BB news.

[westcoastit]

Why is it a big call to make?BB is tried tested and true. Everything else is garbage and any corporation or business using anything other then BB is just asking for trouble. I know you hate positive BB news.

BB7 is tried and tested. BES 5 is tried and tested. BB10 is an entirely new architecture, as is the new BES server. Rolling that out into live production with no internal testing is hasty and banks are traditionally risk averse. The Playbook was rooted after launch so the security bona fides of QNX are certainly questionable compared to the evolution of the old java OS.

[undone]

And if a major bank in Canada is backing it, then I would bet there are some inside testing and validation that will happen. RIM will inside track those that are committing. They will show favoritism. They HAVE TO, no choice. Even to the point where I wouldnt be surprised that they have RIM personnel onsite doing things.

[TRlPPlN]

Marketing info is no substitute for thorough testing. I'm think this person may have instead been saying "we're going to start a trial of Bb10 as soon as its available." That would be a much more responsible approach that I would expect from a major bank.

let me stop you before you assume the worse....you do know that there are already many corporations that have seeding of PB devices and some have bb10 devices for the past several months for testing and implementing with their new MDM. The collaborated services of BES 10 has been out and several corporations are actually in production with those servcies. I can tell you right now, the pipeline they have for their MDM has capabilities beyond what competitors can and will offer. im not going to details about it. Alot of enterprises are not being stated commercially due to NDA.

[metz9444]

BB7 is tried and tested. BES 5 is tried and tested. BB10 is an entirely new architecture, as is the new BES server. Rolling that out into live production with no internal testing is hasty and banks are traditionally risk averse. The Playbook was rooted after launch so the security bona fides of QNX are certainly questionable compared to the evolution of the old java OS.

AFAIK the PB was rooted because RIM unintentionally left it open and that will be not an issue in BB10 if it isn't closed already. Also, the cryptographic kernal is still rock solid and so is the partition on the devices so putting andriod market on the PB will not compromise security at all. Granted there are more knowledgeable people that can give specifics/clarification.

[mikeo007]

let me stop you before you assume the worse....you do know that there are already many corporations that have seeding of PB devices and some have bb10 devices for the past several months for testing and implementing with their new MDM. The collaborated services of BES 10 has been out and several corporations are actually in production with those servcies. I can tell you right now, the pipeline they have for their MDM has capabilities beyond what competitors can and will offer. im not going to details about it. Alot of enterprises are not being stated commercially due to NDA.

Closet testing of an unfinished product is still no substitute for a large scale capability assessment. I have no doubt they have access to more info than the public, but I still think that jumping head first as soon as Bb10 is released is just too irresponsible for a major global corporation. I guess the other thing is, this is only coming from an IT department. They may be gung- to start implementing BB10 right away, but they're not the sole decision makers either.

Only time will tell I guess.

[westcoastit]

AFAIK the PB was rooted because RIM unintentionally left it open and that will be not an issue in BB10 if it isn't closed already.

"Oops, our bad" doesn't cut it when it comes to device security. Something went wrong there and assuming it won't happen again is a matter of faith. BB10 is entirely new and should be compared to every other MDM solution out there, including BES 5. There needs to be a solid business case for switching from something that works to something new; My users are going to stick with their BB6 and 7 devices until we're satisfied that a good enough reason to change exists. "Sexy" isn't a good enough reason or we would have switched to/allowed iOS devices already.

[madman0141]

Sounds good and I hope BB10 puts your bank to the #1 position. Glad to hear the Canadian Banking Industry isn't worried about Netflix or Skype.

[TRlPPlN]

Closet testing of an unfinished product is still no substitute for a large scale capability assessment. I have no doubt they have access to more info than the public, but I still think that jumping head first as soon as Bb10 is released is just too irresponsible for a major global corporation. I guess the other thing is, this is only coming from an IT department. They may be gung- to start implementing BB10 right away, but they're not the sole decision makers either.

Only time will tell I guess.

you missed the part about some are in production with both the bb10 device + BES collaborated mdm services and not in testing or assessment phase. Martha Stewart Corp is using mobile fusion in production. It would be stupid for RIM not to seed them the devices before the launch. then again, i could be wrong since RIM was notorious in missteps.

[LuvULongTime]

Closet testing of an unfinished product is still no substitute for a large scale capability assessment. I have no doubt they have access to more info than the public, but I still think that jumping head first as soon as Bb10 is released is just too irresponsible for a major global corporation. I guess the other thing is, this is only coming from an IT department. They may be gung- to start implementing BB10 right away, but they're not the sole decision makers either.

Only time will tell I guess.

I wouldn't take "from day 1" literally. I'm sure BB7 devices will be the norm in this bank well into Q3. BB10 will probably be on a limited/pilot rollout. I'm sure this is where they will do their testing/tweaking, and then eventually embark on a wide scale rollout as old OS 6/7 devices come up for replacement.

[dentynefire]

Marketing info is no substitute for thorough testing. I'm think this person may have instead been saying "we're going to start a trial of Bb10 as soon as its available." That would be a much more responsible approach that I would expect from a major bank.

QNX is FIPS certified so I guess it might be ok. But you are right testing is needed but likely to happen once an app is built. Not that I know for sure

[mikeo007]

you missed the part about some are in production with both the bb10 device + BES collaborated mdm services and not in testing or assessment phase. Martha Stewart Corp is using mobile fusion in production. It would be stupid for RIM not to seed them the devices before the launch. then again, i could be wrong since RIM was notorious in missteps.

I didn't think they were using mobile fusion 10 already. We're testing mobile fusion here right now since we still have a mix of devices, but no mention of early access to the newer version. You'd think we'd hear something being one of the largest government institutions.

[adrenaline_x]

I'm attending the Blackberry Enterprise forum tomorrow morning..

I'm hoping to be impressed.. I love my s3..

[mikeo007]

I wouldn't take "from day 1" literally. I'm sure BB7 devices will be the norm in this bank well into Q3. BB10 will probably be on a limited/pilot rollout. I'm sure this is where they will do their testing/tweaking, and then eventually embark on a wide scale rollout as old OS 6/7 devices come up for replacement.

This is more what I was thinking. Being eager to test is a good thing, and baring any issues they could start rolling out Bb10 in a decent timeframe. But rolling out without pilot testing is just not a good business decision. I'm going to prod some people here and see if anyone's under NDA and can give me some more info. We may not be offering current BB devices anymore, but I'd be surprised if someone didn't at least have Bb10 in the back of their minds.