MobileIron, a company making smartphones, has launched its Virtual Smartphone Platform, the product to combine data-driven smartphone management with real-time wireless cost control.

According to the company, its data virtualisation technology is a new approach to enterprise mobility. The company’s new offering creates a central view of smartphone content, activity, and applications in the data centre to give IT and end-users insight into usage, and control over security and cost.

Some of the new features of the platform include: security, device, and application management; enterprise data boundary for employee-owned smartphones; real-time usage alerts for roaming and cost control; operator service quality monitoring; and MyPhone@Work end-user services.

The company said that, with these services, organisations can: get smartphone operations under control; cut enterprise wireless bills by up to 20%; and drive user adoption and productivity through phone choice and services like the enterprise app store.

According to the company, the MobileIron product provides a six to twelve month payback and is sold as an appliance that plugs into a company’s IT infrastructure. The platform is up and running in less than an hour.

Bob Tinker, CEO of MobileIron, said: “We spent the last 18 months working with enterprises to understand the smartphone challenges they face. There is tremendous pressure on IT to keep up with user demand while containing costs. MobileIron’s innovative platform gives CIOs the confidence to say ‘yes’ to mobility without sacrificing either data security or their expense line.”

MobileIron is said to support BlackBerry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile smartphones currently, with Symbian and Android coming soon.