Blackberry’s last attempts at the tablet market didn’t go particularly well, but that hasn’t stopped them from partnering with IBM through their SecuSmart business unit to launch the SecuTablet that sees BlackBerry’s software running on a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5′ tablet.
The SecuTablet has been designed for the public sector and enterprise markets running SecuSUITE for BlackBerry 10. The software on the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 allows data that is subject to special security requirements to run in conjunction with normal tablet applications such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or WhatsApp. Think of it like Samsungs Knox security suite for business & enterprise running with everyday TouchWiz operations on any Galaxy device.
“Security is ingrained in every part of BlackBerry’s portfolio, which includes voice and data encryption solutions,” said Dr. Hans-Christoph Quelle, CEO of Secusmart GmbH, a BlackBerry company. “National and international government customers have entrusted their voice and data communications with the Secusmart Security Card for years. This same technology is what secures the new SecuTABLET. Working alongside IBM and Samsung, we have added the last link in the chain of the Federal Security Network. Subject to certification of the SecuTABLET, German government agencies will have a new way to access BlackBerry’s most secure and complete communications network in the world.”
Stefan Hefter, Senior Management Consultant with IBM has said that the “The SecuTABLET closes a supply gap and opens up for government and administrations an opportunity to derive greater benefit from digitization and the mobile Internet, with system integration as a fundamental success factor,” and that We have contributed our longstanding expertise as a system integrator for mobile solutions. The technology used to make mobile apps secure by means of so-called wrapping has already proven its worth in the United States.”
The tablet won’t be available in stores, and with a hefty price tag of US$2,380 it probably won’t be available many places. Ongoing German government tests hint that you may well see it in the field, though exactly which field is not terribly certain. Which markets will adopt this quite pricey solution remains to be seen, but it’s an interesting development from Blackberry.
