Blackberry 2016 Annual Report Download - page 23

Table of Contents
14
Competitive Strengths
The Company’s competitive strengths include the following:
Enterprise Solutions and Services
The Company’s enterprise portfolio offers leading mobility management, secure business productivity, application
containerization, secure collaboration and DRM capabilities. The Company is recognized for attaining the highest levels of
security certifications and approvals for many of its solutions, including Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 4
Augmented (EAL4+) for its Good Powered by BlackBerry solutions. The inclusion of a sophisticated network operations
centre in the BlackBerry infrastructure is also a key differentiator. The Company pioneered the use of this architecture for the
routing of messages to and from mobile devices, and over time has expanded capabilities to enable end-to-end secure
communications between mobile devices and applications and enterprise networks. The key benefits of the BlackBerry
infrastructure include network and data security, reliability, and efficiency.
Devices
The Company’s smartphones are designed with a unique focus on security and privacy, beginning with the manufacturing
process that embeds security at the hardware level (hardware root of trust) and continues through every layer of the device.
BlackBerry 10 smartphones are widely used by governments and regulated industry customers with high security requirements.
The upcoming version of the BlackBerry 10 operating system (10.3.3) will be certified for NIAP (National Information
Assurance Partnership) compliance. The Company’s first smartphone based on the Android platform, the PRIV, extends the
Company’s security model and expertise to Android. PRIV is differentiated by its slide out touch-enabled physical keyboard,
integrated messaging experience and built-in BlackBerry security features designed to protect personal privacy and business-
critical data.
BTS
The Company’s competitive strengths in its BTS business are rooted in the Company’s proprietary technology, including
QNX’s POSIX compliant micro-kernel architecture for embedded software applications, Certicom’s cryptography applications,
and Paratek’s adaptive RF antenna tuning technology. In addition, QNX, as a trusted and recognized leader in software for
automotive electronics, brings decades of accumulated knowledge and proven reliability to the embedded software market.
Messaging
AtHoc is a leader in network-centric, interactive crisis communication and is the leading provider of such solutions to the DoD,
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and leading healthcare, industrial and commercial organizations. The AtHoc
platform has been certified by the Department of Homeland Security for its security, integrates with legacy systems, is mobile,
and supports on-premise and cloud-based deployments.
BBM leverages the BlackBerry infrastructure to offer a rich messaging experience for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry users
with features such as free voice calling over Wi-Fi, one-click sharing of files and photos, Dropbox integration, location sharing
and BBM Channels. BBM Protected provides full end-to-end message encryption (using FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic
libraries) for enterprise customers, with no separate hardware required.
Product Design, Engineering and Research and Development
The Company’s research and development (“R&D”) strategy seeks to provide broad market applications for products derived
from its technology base.
The Company dedicates a major portion of its R&D investments to the development of software products and services that
meet the needs of both enterprise IT departments and individual customers. This includes enterprise solutions and services in
mobile security, management, productivity and collaboration offerings, app security and containerization, IAM, and EFSS with
file level data protection. Solutions include leading security capabilities at each level of the platform in order to address the
needs of customers for securing devices, applications, content and work data - at rest and in transit.
The Company creates innovative and robust hardware designs through complex mechanical stack up, board layout and
component integration, combined with proprietary software and firmware features. These tightly integrated solutions allow the
Company to customize its core proprietary technical solutions to address new applications, network protocols, and evolving
transmission frequencies. The Company’s tunable closed loop radio transceiver technology can be adapted to support multiple
protocols in the wireless data communications market. The Company has developed its own radio code stack, which it
incorporates into the processors that are deployed in BlackBerry smartphones.
The Company develops software and services to support BlackBerry smartphones, including the BlackBerry 10 operating
system and Android operating system enhancements, such as advanced privacy controls, verified boot and secure bootchain,
and Android kernel hardening.