According to Reuters, the company behind BlackBerry devices, Research In Motion (RIM), is planning to introduce new software that would effectively give users two phones in one. Enter BlackBerry Balance.

 

While many professionals used two different mobile phones in the past, a work and personal phone, with today's smartphones many corporations are allowing employees to use their company smartphone in a personal capacity too. This has resulted in IT departments having to manage confidential information on these devices, with many not supporting the proper security features needed.

 

“There are two fundamental use cases on the smartphone – enterprise and personal. The problem is that they are conflicting,” said Jeff McDowell, RIM's senior vice president for business and platform marketing.

 

The company's solution comes in the form of new software known as BlackBerry Balance. This allows IT departments to retain secure control of business related data such as email, while keeping an employee's web browser, social networking and photographs separate.

 

"We just wanted to create an innovative solution that allows enterprises to manage the corporate data side while at the same time give their employees the freedom to use Facebook and browse the Web and get their Internet email at the same time," McDowell said.

 

He said that Balance should be available in the US within two months and also revealed that it would be coming to the BlackBerry PlayBook, RIM's upcoming tablet computer. He also dropped a hint regarding the tablet's battery life, saying, “it's going to be equal or greater than the iPad with smaller battery size.”

 

While news of the PlayBook is still relatively scarce, it's good to know that RIM is forging forth with the project. In the meantime we'll be looking forward to see if BlackBerry Balance can make an impact on the heavily saturated mobile software scene or not.