BlackBerry today unveiled BlackBerry Secure Internet of Things (IoT) feature packs for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to a prepared statement.
The following BlackBerry Secure feature packs are now available:
- BlackBerry Secure Enablement Feature Pack: Offers manufacturing and product lifecycle management features, including a manufacturing station that delivers a hardware Root of Trust and is connected to BlackBerry's Network Operation Center.
- BlackBerry Secure Foundations Feature Pack: Leverages Secure Boot and ARM Trustzone technology to generate, use and store encryption keys for software operations and the BlackBerry Integrity Detection (BID) service, which creates real-time "health" reports for end users and trusted third-party applications.
- BlackBerry Secure Enterprise Feature Pack: Helps enterprises control data access via device debug interfaces, communication protocols and radios and establish and implement security policies.
BlackBerry Secure empowers OEMs with software components to protect IoT devices against malware, ransomware and rooting, the company said. By doing so, BlackBerry Secure helps OEMs address the security and privacy needs of organizations and their end users.
BlackBerry Acquires Cylance
The BlackBerry Secure announcement comes after BlackBerry in November 2018 acquired Cylance, a company that specializes in artificial intelligence-based threat detection and prevention solutions. BlackBerry purchased Cylance for $1.4 billion in cash, and the deal is expected to close prior to the end of February 2018.
Cylance will operate as a separate business unit within BlackBerry upon completion of the acquisition, the companies said. Furthermore, Cylance could help BlackBerry accelerate its earnings growth.
BlackBerry's Business Transformation
BlackBerry's transformation from a smartphone provider into an enterprise mobile software company has shown progress.
On the financial front, the company delivered a "solid quarter of performance" in the third quarter of fiscal year 2019, CEO John Chen said in December 2018. Some of BlackBerry's Q3FY19 earnings results included:
- Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) total revenue of $226 million, up from $210 million one year earlier.
- Total non-GAAP software and services revenue of $219 million, up 10 percent year over year.
- Non-GAAP operating income of $27 million; Q3FY19 marked BlackBerry's 11th consecutive quarter of positive non-GAAP operating income.
BlackBerry has projected double-digit software and services billings growth for full-year FY19. It also has predicted full-year FY19 software and services revenue growth between 8 percent to 10 percent year over year and positive free cash flow.
