Here’s why BlackBerry just took a swipe at Good Technology

The “Inside BlackBerry” blog today ran an uncharacteristically feisty piece. The article, called “Good Isn’t all that Great, while Iron shows its Rust” by former tech journalist Eric Lai takes aim at BlackBerry’s critics.

“Naturally, our critics never acknowledge the good things that are happening at BlackBerry,” says Lai. “Things like the fact we’ve gained more than 800,000 licenses to BES since March in part because of its low Total Cost of Ownership; that we’ve just launched a cost-competitive new phone to a positive reception; that we’re enhancing our BlackBerry 10 OS and licensing access to industry giants such as AirWatch, IBM, SAP and Citrix. We’re even teasing consumers with a tasty new device or two.”

The piece then goes on to critique Good Technology, which filed for an IPO this past Wednesday.

Why go after Good Technology? A sharp-eyed Mark McQueen of Wellington Financial may have uncovered the answer. He points out the company has hinted in its S-1 filing that they’ve entered into an agreement to acquire Toronto’s FixMo

FixMo, of course, is the firm that was founded by ex-BlackBerry exec Rick Segal. Segal brought in lots of other BlackBerry refugees to try and provide BlackBerry-like security on non-BlackBerry devices, teaming up with none other than Samsung to do so.

How deep is FixMo’s BlackBerry pedigree? The company’s Chief MRM Architect, Jonas Gyllensvaan, founded Conceivieum Business Solutions, Inc., which specialized in the development and marketing of BlackBerry mobile platform management solutions, before moving to Fixmo. And Fixmo’s Chief Marketing Officer, Tyler Lessard, was once Vice President of BlackBerry Global Alliances and Developer Relations at RIM, again specializing in nurturing the BlackBerry ecosystem by launching BlackBerry App World. Lee Cocking, Fixmo’s VP of Corporate Strategy, spent a decade working at RIM where he managed core components of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution.

Lai cites a number of sources that says Good’s numbers just don’t add up, offering that BlackBerry doesn’t look so bad in comparison.

“With Good’s and MobileIron’s proposed (albeit uncertain) IPOs, CIOs are finally able to judge the financial risk of other EMM vendors for the first time. Now, they have the information to compare BlackBerry and its competitors in true apples-to-apples fashion. When you take all of that into account, suddenly, we don’t look so risky after all.”

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