BlackBerry® 10 has been designed from the ground up as a new mobile computing platform, based on careful study of how we interact with devices, the work and personal activities that fill our days, and our drive to be connected and get things done. There are new features not yet seen before in the mobile landscape, as well as a flow of interaction that will be intuitive, seamless, and functional. Today I’d like to share some of what that experience will hold for both business professionals who are always on the go, and IT administrators that work to secure, manage, and enable smartphones and tablets in their organizations.

The Balance between Work and Personal Use

Smartphones aren’t meant to be single-purpose devices. They allow us to connect to a world of information, capture moments, and stay close to both colleagues and friends. We’ve designed BlackBerry 10 to serve both personal and work purposes, along with everything in between. The key here is to allow for a rapid flow between these two uses, just as we rapidly flow between a quick personal conversation and then jump into a meeting for work. BlackBerry 10 smartphones and the platform itself are designed to fit into your life and your particular style of use as you tackle what’s on your plate.

The way that we’ve enabled this concept is through BlackBerry® Balance™ technology. You may have heard the term before – the beginnings of this technology are active today on many BlackBerry® 6 and BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphones, as well as the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with version 2 of the PlayBook OS, but BlackBerry 10 brings the functionality and experience to a whole new level. Let’s look at both the business professional experience and the IT administrator experience.

Business Professionals: Adapting to Your Movements

To switch between work and personal spaces on BlackBerry 10 smartphones, you simply swipe down from anywhere on the Home Screen, causing “Work” and “Personal” buttons to appear at the top of the display, letting you tap from one profile to the other. A swipe and a tap is all it takes to switch gears.

Once you’ve entered the work space of your BlackBerry 10 smartphone, you can access dedicated corporate applications, access your intranet and company web apps, work on and share files and documents, and much more. You can even download work apps on the BlackBerry App World™ storefront – apps that your company has developed and made available to employees or that have been selected from BlackBerry App World as recommended apps. Mandatory apps can be pushed straight to the devices.

In the personal space of your BlackBerry 10 smartphone, you’ll have the ability to install apps, use social networks, manage photos, create videos, and take advantage of all that the device has to offer. Data is designed to be protected in each space, so you won’t lose your personal photos, music, or any other information if your device is wiped by your IT department. With this functionality, you can seamlessly swap between work and personal activity on the device.

It gets even better when we look at apps that bridge the gap and allow you to access both work and personal information if the work area is unlocked such as the BlackBerry Hub, Contacts, and Calendar. In the BlackBerry Hub, you’ll be able to see work and personal emails, messages, social media activity, and more. If the work space is locked, only personal messages will appear. Similarly, in the Calendar application, work events appear as locked events until the work space is unlocked.

With a platform built to fit into both your work and personal life, you can do it all on a single smartphone by managing your connections and communication from unified apps, or by accessing dedicated personal or work applications within each space.

IT Administrators: Managing and Securing Data

BlackBerry 10 with BlackBerry Balance – managed by BlackBerry® Enterprise Service 10 – will allow you to embrace the trend of employees bringing their own devices to work. While BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 will allow you to manage iOS® and Android™ smartphones and tablets as well, let’s look at some of the features that will make BlackBerry 10 clearly stand apart.

Corporate data on the smartphones is strictly secured, encrypted, and grounded in the work space. Even when end users are able to view both work and personal data side by side, the work data is completely manageable and protected. Here are some examples of protection features as well as policies that IT administrators will be able to enforce.

• Work files can only be viewed and edited by work applications
• A custom wallpaper can be set for the work space of the device
• Cut and copied work data cannot be pasted into the personal space
• Corporate data can’t be transferred to a microSD card or USB peripherals – this will be available as a management option for IT administrators in future releases
• Applications can be pushed to devices or provided optionally, including public BlackBerry App World apps without the need to obtain the source files
• Specific controls for network routings in the work and personal spaces

BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 has been designed so that IT administrators will be able to utilize a single web-based console for rapid and simplified enterprise mobility management, with features such as configuring settings, enabling or disabling policies, controlling how users can interact with corporate data, and more.

BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 represents a consolidation of our enterprise mobility management (EMM) product portfolio and will act as a complete solution for managing mobile devices, enabling communication and collaboration, and making mobile administration much more straightforward. Existing BlackBerry Enterprise Servers will be integrated and all components will ultimately reside on the same physical server. Read more in our update on the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog.

Adaptable, Manageable, and Personal

We believe that BlackBerry 10 smartphones will enhance the way that we interact with mobile devices, and solve the dilemma of work and personal use on a single device. Learn more about what’s ahead with the BlackBerry 10 platform by checking out the links to further resources below, and stay tuned for further details!

• BlackBerry 10 Sneak Peek Video from BlackBerry® World 2012
• BlackBerry® Jam Americas 2012 Keynote Wrap Up
• RIM® Sr. Director of Enterprise Product Management on our Enterprise Roadmap [VIDEO]

For those that are unfamiliar with Docs To Go, it is a powerful mobile office suite that allows you to view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel®, and PowerPoint® files and attachments on BlackBerry® smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. You also have the ability to present PowerPoint documents from your BlackBerry PlayBook by plugging into a projector or TV via an HDMI connection. While in presenter mode, speaking notes are visible on your PlayBook, while your presentation itself is visible from the projector or TV. Updates to BlackBerry® Bridge™ in PlayBook OS 2.0 further enhance this feature by allowing you to control “back” and “next” functionality using your BlackBerry smartphone.

Feature Improvements to the Docs To Go Suite

• Editing text within Microsoft PowerPoint documents is now supported
• The suite now supports BlackBerry® Balance™ for keeping corporate documents and data secure
• Find & Replace functionality has been added to the Microsoft Word and Excel feature list
• Bluetooth® keyboards and keyboard-shortcuts are now supported
• You can now clear files from the “Recently Used Files” list
• Password-protected Office 2010 files can now be accessed
• When presenting, you can now use your BlackBerry smartphone with BlackBerry Bridge as a remote control to move forward and backward through your presentation

Specific enhancements have been implemented for individual applications within the suite.

• While editing Microsoft Word documents, you’ll have the ability to create and edit both bulleted and numbered lists.
• Editing Microsoft Excel files includes functionality which allows you to copy, paste, and resize cells, rows, and columns. Additionally, you may view and update embedded charts and chart sheets. Lastly, a new formula wizard has been added for easy entry of over 110 supported functions.
• Working with Microsoft PowerPoint files will include editing of text in in both .ppt and .pptx file formats, and also allows you to hide/show slides with basic HDMI presenter-mode optimizations. Lastly, viewing of charts within PowerPoint .pptx files has also been improved.

Introducing Print To Go version 1.0

Print To Go eliminates the hassle of mountains of paper files by wireless printing from your laptop or PC directly to your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with the simple click of a “print” button. With an easy-to-install Microsoft® Windows® application, Print To Go is added as a printer to your system. You can view, sort, and manage digital printouts from various sources like web pages, documents, emails, or other applications – all within a very slick and intuitive user interface that mimics physical sheets of paper, which was inspired by our friends over at The Astonishing Tribe (TAT).

For example, before jumping on a plane to attend CES 2012 in Las Vegas, I printed all of the planning documents and schedules that I had kept on my PC, right to my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which allowed me to reference these files while en route. I did the same with a map of the city, as well as my flight and hotel booking information. In the office, I have the ability to quickly transfer a document to my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet for use in a meeting or a coffee shop conversation with a colleague. Taking your work on the go is quick and functional with PlayBook OS 2.0 and the Print To Go application. For solutions that allow you to print documents from your PlayBook tablet to a physical printer, look no further than BlackBerry App World™.

On to the specifics!

Print To Go version 1.0 includes the following:

• A Microsoft® Windows® application that installs a virtual “Print To Go” printer onto your computer that can be accessed from any application that allows printing (e.g. Microsoft Office, web pages, image viewers, and more)
• Secure wireless peer-to-peer printing from your PC to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet over Wi-Fi®, including end-to-end encryption of the documents
• If you have BlackBerry Balance in use on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, all printouts are automatically sent to the secure “Work” partition
• Secure printing using your BlackBerry ID
• Notifications on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet when new printouts arrive
• A Print To Go app on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet that allows you to view, sort, and manage printouts as if they were physical stacks of paper on a desktop
• A virtual paper shredder for deleting the digital printouts from your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

These enhancements to the Docs To Go office suite, as well as the addition of Print To Go, will truly push the abilities of mobile work far forward. Working from your tablet, especially when using a Bluetooth keyboard or an HDMI monitor connection, now provides a higher level of functionality and capability when creating, editing, presenting or sharing documents. We hope that Print To Go will not only save paper, but also help you to unclutter your work life by keeping your desk clean and allowing you to use your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet as a resource for handling printed documents.

How will you use Print To Go in your daily work? Share in the comments below.