iPass, a provider of enterprise mobility services, today launched the 'industry's first' global enterprise Wi-Fi client for the BlackBerry platform. With the addition of the iPassConnect Client for BlackBerry, iPass supports the leading smartphones used by large enterprises – including the iPhone, and Windows Mobile- and Symbian-based smartphones. Now iPass Mobile Office corporate customers-many with large departments using Wi-Fi enabled devices-can provide their employees with access to nearly 140,000 hotspots in 83 countries.
"Many employees at Bechtle are eager to leverage their BlackBerry smartphones for business applications," said Markus Jung, head of mobile solutions at German-based Bechtle. "Now that iPass is offering support for BlackBerry smartphones, we can satisfy their desire for Wi-Fi connectivity. iPass Mobile Office is a key component of our enterprise mobility strategy. It makes our employees more productive as they work remotely and gives our IT department a powerful management tool that ultimately saves them time and money."
Despite 3G connectivity on many devices, the advanced applications currently in use from vendors such as Oracle, Siebel, Salesforce.com and Microsoft demand the wider bandwidth associated with Wi-Fi for fuller functionality and greater usability. With access to the world's largest Wi-Fi hotspot network, enterprises can bridge the 3G performance gap while avoiding expensive roaming charges and taking advantage of predictable and transparent monthly mobility costs.
"Independent research conducted with 300 Belgian companies showed that while laptops remain the most used device for Internet access abroad, BlackBerry ranked top in the smartphone category with 59 percent," said Steven Van den Neucker, Director Mobile Telenet Solutions. "Now that iPass is offering support for BlackBerry smartphones, we can satisfy this demand and provide a global Wi-Fi connectivity service for these users. Now, more than ever, iPass Mobile Office offers employees a perfect solution for mobile working."
iPass is available for all current and future Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry smartphones.
"The addition of iPassConnect clients for iPhone and now BlackBerry smartphones gives our customers the widest choice of device support on the market at no extra cost to enterprises deploying the service," said Evan Kaplan, CEO, iPass Inc. "We're encouraging enterprises to take another look at their mobility strategies and begin to realise the benefits associated with a global connectivity service across multiple devices. Driving down mobility costs and management overheads has become even easier now that iPass offers support for increasingly popular BlackBerry smartphones."
The iPassConnect application for BlackBerry smartphones works in conjunction with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, giving IT administrators the ability to remotely deploy and manage how the application is used by employees. This functionality saves IT departments significant time and effort by negating the need to physically recall every handset to update it with software. As part of the iPass Mobile Office service there are no additional contracts to sign, start-up fees to pay, or credentials to manage.
Freely available for download through the iPass Software Downloads page or on BlackBerry App World, the new iPass client can be downloaded and accessed simply by entering an iPass username and password. iPass login credentials are not restricted to a certain number of devices so users are free to make use of the iPass service across multiple iPass-enabled notebooks or smartphones.
iPass Mobile Office also supports Windows Vista, XP and 2000; Max OS X 10.4,10.5 and 10.6; Symbian S60 Third Generation devices (versions 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2); Windows Mobile 5, 6 and Pocket PC 2003; and the iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPod touch.