Google on Wednesday announced a new initiative aimed at making greater inroads in enterprise, where Apple’s devices are by and large the preferred choice.
Dubbed ‘Android for Work,’ the program revolves around four key technology components: work profiles, the Android for Work app, Google Play for Work and a set of built-in productivity tools. As is its wont, Google has partnered with a number of technology and solutions provider on the initiative.
Third-parties will help ensure consistent enterprise mobility management, Google said, adding it’s given devs ability to create a single version of any Google Play app which can then be securely deployed to any Android device without alterations or wrapping.
Android for Work features Google-made enterprise versions of apps for email, contacts and calendar with support for Exchange and Notes accounts and editing capabilities for documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
Android for Work devices have a dedicated work profile that isolates and protects work data (via multi-user support in Android 5.0 Lollipop) from users’ personal files and apps. ”People can use their personal apps knowing their employer only manages work data and won’t erase or view their personal content,” said the search giant.
Google Play for Work, an enterprise-focused version of Google’s app store for Android software, lets business owners deploy and manage apps securely.
A dedicated ‘Android for Work’ app for devices running Ice Cream Sandwich through Kitkat delivers secure mail, calendar, contacts, documents, browsing and access to approved work apps, and can be completely managed by technology officers in corporations.
More information is available at google.com/work/android.
Apple’s iOS has been dominating corporate use and enterprise deployment by a large margin. With the recent Apple-IBM partnership, Apple seems poised to really open up a largely untapped market for enterprise apps aimed at mobile workers.
Source: Google