Samsung’s efforts to bolster its enterprise smartphone proposition “has been beset by delays and programming bugs”, The Wall Street Journal said.

In February 2013, the South Korean smartphone number one announced Knox, which it described as “an end-to-end secure solution that provides security hardening from the hardware through to the application layer”.

Built on top of Android, Knox uses a secure container to house a set of pre-screened applications to run and store data, and the company said that information in this container “is protected from malware and phishing attacks as well as hacking attempts on physical devices when devices are lost or stolen”.

According to the report, Samsung executives have “privately acknowledged the problems” rolling out Knox, including challenges building an enterprise support network, as well as issues implementing the technology itself.

It noted that the project has required “an unusually high level of cooperation between the hardware engineers in South Korea and Samsung’s software teams, many of whom work in the US”.

While Samsung is already the number one smartphone vendor, this has been built on a strong consumer proposition, with a focus on device hardware and software rather than services.

And the company does not have such a strong grip in the enterprise market.

The ongoing struggles of BlackBerry have created an opportunity for other vendors to improve their positions in this lucrative market – as long as they are able to meet enterprise demands in areas such as security and device management.

The Wall Street Journal said that the issue has been “particularly vexing to US government officials”, who have been looking for government-approved alternatives to BlackBerry for some time.

It continued that the Defense Information Systems Agency – the body which grants approval for technology used by the US government – has been “particularly frustrated” with delays to devices including Knox, having given initial approval earlier this year.

In order to address its issues, Samsung has hired a number of former BlackBerry executives, the report said. It also plans to invest in Knox-related marketing efforts.