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Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank switched part of their smartphone management systems to a competitor in 2013.

In the United States, even more customers have opted to completely sever ties with BlackBerry, including drug giant Pfizer Inc. Meanwhile, the U.S. Defense Department has stopped exclusively using the company for its device solutions as part of a contingency plan for a worst-case scenario of BlackBerry shutting down.

A number of competitors have aggressively promoted their services as an alternative to BlackBerry, including device management companies like Atlanta-based AirWatch, which offers services for secure devices, apps and data in the workplace.

BlackBerry, a pioneer in the smartphone industry, is trying to engineer a turnaround after its new line of devices have failed to win back market share ceded to rivals such as Apple Inc’s iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co’s line of Galaxy devices powered by Google’s Android operating system.

Under new Chief Executive John Chen, BlackBerry is trying to transform itself into a more services-oriented company, with an emphasis on MDM.

John Sims, who heads BlackBerry’s enterprise division, said he did not expect the move to hurt the company’s own MDM business.

“We have organized the company into four divisions, and we have indicated that each of the divisions needs to be successful in its own right” said Sims. “Today’s announcement is an example of how the devices business needs to pursue its success as an entity by opening the BlackBerry 10 platform to other MDM players.

“We believe MDM as a capability is just table stakes these days, and really, the market has moved beyond that into how do you manage applications, manage data in transit on devices,” he said.

BlackBerry is better positioned than its rivals to offer such services, he added.

© Thomson Reuters 2014, with files from The Canadian Press

