RIM Tuesday introduced BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, a multi-platform mobile device management (MDM) service capable of supporting Apple and Android tablets and smartphones as well as its own.

A few years ago such a move would have easily been heretical but now it's an unabashed attempt by the struggling company to keep a hold of enterprise and government customers that may no longer be addicted to the Crackberry and may be countenancing the "Bring Your Own Device" trend.

The Fusion widgetry, currently in early beta testing with select enterprise customers, runs on RIM's core BlackBerry Enterprise Server technology famous for delivering e-mail efficiently and securely. It will offer administrators a single web-based console.

RIM said it is now looking for testers for the closed beta program due to start in January, with general availability expected in late March.

RIM said the stuff can do asset management, configuration management, security and policy definition and management, user- and group-based administration, application and software management and connectivity management (Wi-Fi, VPN, certificates).

It can secure and protect lost or stolen devices (remote lock, wipe) and manage multiple devices per user. It also scales, as history has proven.

RIM warned that device security, manageability and controls will vary according to the device's underlying operating system.

There are supposed to be additional features for its own phones and tablets such as Balance, its technology for supporting a single device used for both work and personal purposes so the company's confidential information isn't compromised.

Meanwhile, RIM Wednesday said it was investigating claims by hackers that they have penetrated the proprietary underpinnings of RIM's QNX-based Playbook tablet, which earned the US government's top security certification, a singular distinction, and gained root access to the device.