RIM will split corporate and personal data

SMARTPHONE MAKER Research in Motion (RIM) will enable its Blackberry phones to split a user's personal data from work-related emails and other applications sponsored by employers.

A senior RIM executive told Reuters that the company will soon introduce software that will effectively give users two phones in one.

The idea is to fight back against Apple's push into its traditional business market and perhaps score a bit of the consumer market for itself.

While many corporations are now allowing employees to use their own smartphones at work, they have been given headaches by the fact that the Iphone is probably one of the least secure things you can put on a corporate network, next to a USB drive or a Russian spy.

Jeff McDowell, RIM's SVP for business and platform marketing said that there are two uses for a smartphone, enterprise and personal. The problem that RIM sees is that they are conflicting.

RIM's answer is Blackberry Balance, which is software that will allow corporate IT departments to retain control over data such as business-related email sent via a Blackberry Enterprise Server while keeping the web browser and an employee's social notworking data and photographs separate.

It will allow enterprises to manage the corporate data side while at the same time allowing employees to run all their personal stuff on the same machine without bothering the network.

He said that carriers are now testing Balance and it should be available in the US within two months. µ