For the third time this week I’ve come across a really big enterprise that’s going (or already gone) cold on Android. They’re reading far too many alarming reports, they can’t understand why they need to stick McAfee on every Android phone (“Google should have done this properly,” one commented) and they really don’t rate any of the tablets.
This is wholly anecdotal of course. It’s only the perspective of three multi-billion dollar companies. Whilst they are big fishes in their markets, they don’t necessarily represent the wider enterprise market.
I do think they’ve got a point though, especially when I sit and consider the huge array of issues with Android. iOS has plenty, too: The recent address book uploading problems are a good example. But this pales into insignificance when you read about Android users downloading deliberately bogus apps that are ripping every single SMS, file, email and call record off the phone and sending the data to some server in China.
I am surprised by how quickly iOS is becoming a default standard with many enterprises I talk with. RIM is still omnipresent everywhere (“It’s the only way to be sure,” said one IT professional I know (he was also quoting from the movie Aliens — a true geek). Alongside RIM Windows Phone is getting some good exercise in enterprises, especially now that the Nokia Lumia is widely available. Enterprises seriously can’t get enough of Microsoft.
What’s your view on this? What kind of anecdotal experiences are you having regarding Android and enterprise?
