Considering how smartphones and tablets like the iPad are infiltrating the enterprise, it’s no wonder that a mobile device management company like MobileIron is seeing great demand for its products. Now MobileIron is making it easier for its partners to integrate MobileIron data and actions with enterprise systems to build their own apps for device management, security and analytics.
The Mountain View, Calif., company today announced the release of its Virtual Smartphone Platform 3.0 along with a Mobility API for channel partners. CEO Bob Tinker says its release reflects the fact that enterprise mobility is no longer an island inside the enterprise.
It also relates to smartphones being provisioned more like laptops. Usually when a new employee arrives, his or her laptop is provisioned by the IT department with all the programs they need on board. The same thing now needs to happen with smartphones, whether they’re brought in by the employee or distributed by the enterprise.
The MobileIron 3.0 release also features improved BlackBerry Enterprise Server integration for “zero-touch” client deployment as well as a way to apply BES policies and remotely lock and wipe devices. (Despite the media’s fascination with Research In Motion’s ability to compete with Apple, Tinker notes while Apple is experiencing “explosive” growth, BlackBerry has a monstrous installed base and the overall market is growing fast.) MobileIron supports BlackBerry OS versions 5.x and above.
MobileIron in August closed a $16 million Series C round, which it will use to accelerate the sales and marketing channel and continue to invest in engineering and innovation, he says. The company has about 75 employees and growing. It has closed deals with six Fortune 500 and two Fortune 200 companies in the last 120 days.
MobileIron has not announced support for Android, but given its multiple system architecture approach, it’s probably safe to say it won’t be a problem supporting various iterations of Android. The company currently supports Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, iPhone/iPad and Symbian, and it’s working with Microsoft on the Phone 7 platform.
Tinker says he hasn’t seen what he would call a horde of new competitors in MobileIron’s space, but he is seeing companies that used to be in adjacent spaces repositioning themselves and adding mobile device management to their portfolios.
