A report from ITWorldCanada (via Mobile Syrup) has revealed that BlackBerry is working on an Alexa device aimed at enterprise users. This was revealed by BlackBerry CEO John Chen where during his presentation at the Security Summit event, Chen mentioned that the company will release an enterprise Alexa device in Q1 2019.
The details of such a device is scarce, and we’re not sure if an always-listening device might be such a good idea in the workplace where sensitive topics might be discussed. However one of the differences between BlackBerry’s Alexa device and others is that it will be able to alert administrators of changes to connections, and will send out these alerts to devices connected via Bluetooth.
Whether or not the enterprise market has a need for such a device remains to be seen, but given Alexa’s popularity and the rise of digital assistants, we can’t say we’re surprised that BlackBerry is trying something.