'Cooperative Mobility' Makes IT Organizations More Effective by Empowering Employees to Share Accountability for Smartphone Security, Cost, and Applications

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 9  -- MobileIron today introduced Release 2.0 of its Virtual Smartphone Platform. Release 2.0 lets IT organizations implement a model of Cooperative Mobility to make smartphone management more effective by sharing the accountability for security, cost, and applications with employees.

Past releases of the MobileIron platform gave IT advanced smartphone management and intelligence capabilities to get smartphone operations under control while saving 10-20% off wireless bills. With MobileIron Release 2.0, the end-user takes center stage.

"The explosion of smartphones in the enterprise is being led by employees. IT has less visibility and control than desired, yet still retains all the accountability," said Bob Tinker, CEO of MobileIron. "As a result, many of our customers are evolving from a traditional 'command-and-control' approach to one that enlists the employee as part of the solution. However, this requires employees to have visibility and engaging services they don't have today. With MobileIron Release 2.0, we are launching a new set of services to address this challenge and enable our customers to establish a culture of self-governance under IT guidance. Our customers call this 'Cooperative Mobility.' It improves end-user satisfaction while making smartphone management more effective and less expensive."

Key features of the MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform Release 2.0 include:

  --  MyPhone@Work - A brand-new web experience for the enterprise end-user.
      With a large portion of business communication migrating to mobile
      calls and text messaging, employees will now have the full visibility
      required to reduce cost and improve their mobile experience:
      --  Threaded, searchable history of mobile communications
      --  Social graph of mobile relationships
      --  Up-to-date view of usage (voice, text, data) to catch costly
          spikes as they happen
      --  Up-to-date view of service quality, like dropped calls, to help
          troubleshoot
      --  Find-my-phone location and mapping service
  --  Event Center - A customizable event engine to track and respond to
      potential security, cost, or quality problems. The Event Center takes
      data and turns it into actions. It can also be mapped to the company's
      wireless billing plans. Some examples of MobileIron Release 2.0 events
      are:
      --  Prevent bill surprises by tracking when employees are approaching
          billing plan thresholds for voice, text, and data
      --  Reduce roaming costs by capturing international roaming usage as
          it happens
      --  Identify potential theft by monitoring SIM card swaps
      --  Identify at-risk phones by monitoring memory and storage
          shortfalls
  --  Enterprise App Store - A new model for delivering mobile enterprise
      applications. With the explosion of in-house and third-party mobile
      applications, IT needs a way to simplify and control the experience.
      MobileIron Release 2.0 provides each customer with their own
      customized Enterprise App Store, transforming the delivery model of
      enterprise applications from "push" to "publish." IT publishes
      approved internal and external applications, noting whether they are
      supported and/or reimbursed, and defining access based on user role or
      IT policy. Employees then browse their Enterprise App Store through
      the MyPhone@Work portal and select the applications best suited for
      them. They simply click on the app icon to install the application
      either directly through the Enterprise App Store or through links to
      external app stores.


  Customer Case Study


MobileIron Release 2.0 was developed with extensive feedback from existing customers. One such customer is NETGEAR, a global provider of networking products, based in San Jose, California.

Smartphones are an essential productivity platform for NETGEAR's global workforce, but controlling costs and improving service quality have always been challenges. "What has been so valuable about the MobileIron platform is that it gives us the real-time data that we always wanted, but could never get before, like international roaming usage and dropped calls," said Chris Field, Director, IT Infrastructure, NETGEAR. "Employees want to do the right thing - but they don't always know what the right thing is or even what the company's mobile policies are. MobileIron allows IT to save money and be more responsive while making the end-user an active participant in identifying quality and cost issues before they become serious problems."

The MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform Release 2.0 is available now. MobileIron supports Apple iPhone, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Nokia Symbian, Palm webOS, and RIM BlackBerry, with Google Android coming soon.

About MobileIron

MobileIron solves the problems CIOs face as enterprise data move to the smartphone. The MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform is the first solution to give IT and users real-time intelligence and control over smartphone content, activity, and apps in order to secure the enterprise, reduce wireless cost, and improve the mobile user experience. MobileIron's investors include Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Storm Ventures. For more information, please visit www.mobileiron.com.