Mobile OS market awash with change
Will other mobile operating systems ever beat the BlackBerry in the enterprise? Only time will tell, but it’s fair to say that there are lots of market shifts afoot, and at least the most popular devices seem to continue gaining enterprise-friendly features.
That includes Android, which is scurrying up the sales ranks. According to a recent study by market research firm NPD Group, Android surpassed the Apple iPhone OS platform in first-quarter 2010 in the United States to grab 28% mobile OS market share and found itself sandwiched between Research in Motion’s BlackBerry (36%) and Apple’s iPhone OS (21%) platforms in sales.
7 Android devices that aren’t phones
And since the trend is for consumers to bring their devices to work, it’s looking like IT managers will be dealing with Android sooner rather than later. In that spirit, Google recently announced a 2.2 upgrade to its open Android mobile operating system, also called “Froyo,” that the company says adds more than 20 new features aimed at the enterprise.
Among the enterprise enticements are improved Microsoft Exchange support with password enforcement, automatic application updates, remote wipe and two- to five-times faster performance due to the addition of a just-in-time compiler, according to the company.
Gartner is giving the moves a cautious thumbs-up.
“In their announcement of Froyo…they did add security capabilities that were our minimum benchmark for use in the enterprise,” according to Ken Dulaney, Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst. He cites the ability to wipe the device of its contents and to force the use of a complex password with periodic changes as bare security essentials
Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone OS 4, which is to be unleashed at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco in early June, has added some background processing capabilities for several functions, including the ability to sustain a VoIP-over-Wi-Fi phone call if a 3G call comes in. With enterprise-savvy HP’s recent acquisition of Palm and Microsoft’s Windows 7 phone due to arrive by Christmas, it’s anybody’s guess how the market pie will be divvied up a year from now.
