Computrace Now Tracks and Traces BlackBerry Smartphones

By Contributor Wireless and Mobile News on February 25, 2009 1:58 PM

Absolute Software has launched Computrace Mobile for the BlackBerry platform. The Computrace service offers asset management, data protection and geolocation tracking for BlackBerry smartphones. Which is very handy if you ever lose your BlackBerry or it gets stolen. It will prevent finders from keeping and losers from weeping.

Computrace can reduce IT operational costs with the ability to manage IT assets from a single portal, the Absolute Customer Center. Computrace adds an additional layer of data protection and increased compliance with government data breach laws through remote Data Delete capabilities. Computrace offers the ability to track smartphones using geolocation and display the location on a map.

The launch follows beta testing program. allowed select Absolute customers to test Computrace Mobile for BlackBerry smartphones within their live IT operations.

One beta test customer, John D. Halamka, CIO, Beth Israel Deaconess & Harvard Medical School, commented, "I depend on my BlackBerry to run five different organizations, $100 million in annual budgets, and 800 emails a day. The Computrace Agent enables me to track my Blackberry via its internal GPS. Also, it enables my staff to track my location to an accuracy of about 20 meters. Over my 60 days of testing, it accurately tracked geolocation 24x7."

After Computrace Mobile is installed and activated on smartphones, it reports asset and location information every 30 minutes. IT administrators can detect hardware and software changes on the smartphone, as well as run daily reports to see its locations using Google Maps within the secure Absolute Customer Center. If a smartphone is lost or stolen, IT administrators can issue a Data Delete command using the Absolute Customer Center portal. Upon receiving the Data Delete command, the Computrace Agent on the smartphone permanently deletes sensitive information, helping to keep it out of the hands of unauthorized users.

Computrace Mobile is currently available for BlackBerry OS versions 4.2.1 and later, including consumer models and all future models, as well as all Windows Mobile 5 and 6 handheld devices such as the MOTO Q, Palm Treo and Samsung BlackJack.