Google hasn’t had the greatest of relationship with the corporate and business world with Android, with many executives still either holding onto their Blackberries or maintaining that Apple can best serve their needs, but according to a report from Paywalled site – TheInformation, Google is apparently looking to move Android more into the business world.
Head of the Google Chrome and Android teams, Sundar Pichai, is apparently leading the charge on the new features which will include ‘APIs, enterprise apps, data encryption, and more’. The added encryption will apparently include hooks in APIs for bio-metrics(fingerprint scanners) as well as for managing devices and remote data wipes for lost devices.
There will also apparently be a separate approval process for Enterprise/Corporate level Apps. App would be checked for vulnerabilities, and would be made available only to employees associated with that corporate account; similar to how Google manages its Google Play for Education offerings.
The rumour is that these updates would be made available in the next ‘big’ release for Android, which of course is the ‘L’ release. Assuming that a point release will accompany some sort of device announcement at Google IO in June as has occurred for the last few years, this means that the ‘L’ release (Please be Lamington) for Android should accompany a brand new Nexus phone in October/November, but we may see something on this as soon as Google IO in June.
If they could provide something like BlackBerry’s BES for Android I feel that would be a huge step, going from managing a fleet of BlackBerry’s to all other smart phones has been horrible for central management, security and control of corporate data. I think BlackBerry got it right with the BES, sure it could have been made much better, but it was an awesome platform for corporate IT.