Blackberry has announced a partnership with Samsung to provide what the company is calling "a tightly integrated, end-to-end secure solution" that brings together its new mobile-security software BlackBerry Enterprise Service 12 (BES12) with Samsung Galaxy devices embedded with the Knox platform.

BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen said BES12 gives the company an opportunity to "recapture [lost share] and build on it".

Knox is a platform that lets people use their own smartphones for both work and personal purposes, ensuring corporate security as well as employee privacy. On the other hand, BES allows companies to remotely manage devices to prevent security breaches and data loss – for example, it enables admins to wipe data in case the device gets lost.

Although the partnership may seem strange, it will give BlackBerry – whose global market share stayed flat at 1% in the past year -- access to a larger customer base to sell its security software, while Samsung will benefit from the Canadian company's strong reputation with mobile security. 

BES12 is a cross-platform enterprise mobility management solution, which means that it works on non-BlackBerry operating systems as well, including iOS, Windows, and Android. According to Chen, more than 90% of BES12 licenses will sell as subscriptions to ensure a source of recurring revenue.

The partnership between Samsung and Blackberry comes just a few months after IBM and Apple joined forces to build enterprise applications for iPads and iPhones and sell iOS devices to Big Blue's corporate customers.