BlackBerry responds to Gartner's call for clients to ditch BB products

Dulaney said QNX, the foundation of the BlackBerry 10 operating system that runs the new Q10 and Z10 smartphones, could be reoriented to focus on real-time applications used in autos or pieces of the emerging Internet of Things.

He said that the software and services divisions could be wrapped into a group to focus on the remaining client base, the BlackBerry network operations center and on 500 carriers globally to manage and deliver applications and content.

"If the company is split up, one or more of those components will exist to support the customer base until a transition can be made," Dulaney wrote. "The customer list is just too valuable to be ignored by the entire market of potential suitors."

Dulaney's report calls on all businesses using BlackBerry to have backup plans for BlackBerry smartphones and BES servers, and suggests that they have up to six months to create them.

With that in mind, he said customers could do one of three things:

• Move off BlackBerry devices completely
• Place BlackBerry on a "contain" status where users are told that BlackBerry will be discontinued except when approved by management, possibly leaving a "controlled'' community of BlackBerry devices.
• Upgrade a limited set of users, such as executives who want a BlackBerry physical keyboard or users in high security jobs, to BB 10 devices, while supporting other platforms such as Android or iOS.

Dulaney also said enterprises should not activate BES 10 for management of Android and Apple devices until there is more clarity on BlackBerry's future.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen, or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His email address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

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