Research in Motion on Tuesday announced that its BlackBerry Mobile Fusion solution is now available.
Mobile Fusion lets business IT administrators manage BlackBerry smartphones and tablets - as well as iOS and Android devices - from a single, central interface.
The offering was first announced in late November. It's now available as a free download, plus the cost of client access licenses, which start at $99 per user or $4 per user per month, billed annually. For those who are not quite ready to take the leap, RIM is offering a 60-day free trial.
"For businesses and government, managing a mix of mobile devices on any scale is chaotic," Alan Panezic, vice president of enterprise product management and marketing at RIM, said in a statement. "BlackBerry Mobile Fusion allows organizations to manage a mixed environment of devices in the most secure, simple, and cost efficient manner possible. It also means that businesses and government do not have to move to the lowest common denominator on security for all the devices they need to manage."
RIM said BlackBerry Mobile Fusion integrates BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0.3 for advanced IT management and a single outbound security connection, as well as support for BlackBerry Balance technology, and over-the-air app and software installation to manage BlackBerry smartphones - including future BlackBerry 10 devices - and PlayBook tablets.
As PCMag networking analyst Samara Lynn pointed out last year, BlackBerry Balance is "designed to support the use of a single device for both work and personal use without compromising any corporate data. One way this is achieved is by having users only supply login credentials to access the corporate network or resources from their devices."
The release comes several days after RIM parted ways with former co-CEO Jim Balsillie and promised to tighten focus on enterprise customers under new chief executive Thorsten Heins.
For more, see PCMag's 2011 year in review for RIM.