France-based PSA Peugeot Citroën—the second-largest car manufacturer in Europe—has purchased 10,000 BlackBerry Z10 smartphones for its operations in France and Spain and is migrating to BlackBerry’s Enterprise Service 10 Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) service. The automaker said that it chose the BlackBerry 10 platform due to its ease of use, security, connectivity and price. The EMM platform gives Peugeot employees end-to-end security, simplified integration with existing IT systems, and various enterprise applications.

Tarifica’s Take

While BlackBerry is laying off about 40 percent of its workforce, posted a net loss of nearly $1 billion in the third quarter of 2013, reportedly has gone through $800 million of a $1 billion cash infusion in the fourth quarter, and had to abandon buyout plans in November, all is not necessarily lost for the embattled Canada-based smartphone pioneer. This very strong show of support from a major multinational industrial company shows that BlackBerry’s EMM service still has value for large corporations that are looking for reliability, security and seamless integration with IT systems. Apple and Android devices are pushing the BlackBerry devices aside in most market sectors, but BlackBerry’s strength is in its server.