Snazzy Android devices – which now number in the dozens – are emerging as an attractive alternative to the popular Apple iPhone. AT&T still holds exclusive iPhone distribution rights in the United States, so iPhone-user wannabes using other carriers’ networks currently remain out of luck. But Android appears to be filling the void. Market research firm The NPD Group, based in Port Washington, N.Y., reported in May that Android sales surpassed those of the Apple iPhone OS platform in the first quarter of 2010 in the U.S. Android garnered 28% mobile OS market share, compared to the iPhone’s 21%, and it placed second to Research In Motion’s BlackBerry (36%), according to NPD. Given the tendency of consumers to bring their gadgets to work and recent enterprise-class updates to the Android OS, the presence of Android in the enterprise is likely to grow swiftly. And the specter of fragmentation that has long loomed over Android may be much ado about nothing, according to Android OS champion Google and others. What’s New? Google recently announced a 2.2 upgrade, called “Froyo,” to its open-source Android mobile operating system. Froyo adds more than 20 new features aimed at the enterprise. Among them: improved Microsoft Exchange support with password enforcement, automatic application updates, remote wipe, and up to five times faster performance. The upgrade meets Gartner Inc.’s minimal requirements for enterprise-class security, says Ken Dulaney, Gartner’s vice president and analyst in Stamford, Conn. Another new Android capability – a virtual wireless LAN access point function that turns an Android phone into a Wi-Fi hot spot – allows other Wi-Fi enabled devices to share a cellular link. This matches similar capabilities in the iPhone and the forthcoming Microsoft Windows Phone 7, allowing users to spontaneously share files and Internet connectivity. Enterprises are taking notice of all the activity. “The Droid Incredible from Verizon [made by HTC] is the first phone that I consider to be an iPhone killer,” asserts Art King, global network manager of a North American-based consumer goods company that prefers its name not be mentioned. His business has largely standardized on Apple iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices, leaving King in a quandary. “It’s going to be a big question: What happens in our company, since we have Apple, AT&T, and now we have people who want Android? [The Droid Incredible’s] Exchange implementation and calendaring are picture perfect. They did an awesome job of addressing all the gaps and issues that Apple has let live in its calendar implementation since its 2.0 or 2.2 release,” King says. Enterprise Trends At outdoor clothing maker Patagonia, Android has entered the picture “to have something on par with the iPhone,” says Alex Yanez, telecommunications engineer. His company uses a combination of Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris devices. Yanez says Patagonia embraced Android phones as a formidable alternative to the iPhone because “all folks who have Verizon network service want to stay on Verizon. Verizon has a better network than the current AT&T network in the United States.” Patagonia uses Good Technology servers to synchronize messaging with its Microsoft Exchange server and for mobile device management (MDM). Good supports Android, iPhone, PalmOS, Symbian, and Windows Mobile operating systems with a management server and handset client agent software. Yanez cites some challenges, however, with getting the Good application to integrate with Microsoft Exchange Contact Manager, which allows users to replicate their contact lists from Exchange to their Android systems. Another Good customer says that “the word on the street is ‘Windows Mobile is dead; either go iPhone or Android,’” says Sherri Houmadi, wireless manager at Perkins & Will, a commercial architect design firm in Chicago. Her firm has a contractual agreement for MPLS WAN services with Sprint that saves more than 15% on wireless plans and more than 30% per month on MPLS circuits. So “we try to steer folks to Sprint devices,” she says. Her users tend to view drawings collaboratively and work on PDFs, “which is why the iPhone appeals to a lot of then. But I can’t afford to have a mass exodus to AT&T, and I’m looking at Android for those folks.” Houmadi has already rolled out some HTC Hero devices and also looks forward to the Android-based Sprint Evo, also made by HTC, for which she says she has had several requests. The Evo was poised for commercial availability at press time on Sprint’s “4G” WiMAX network, which will offer end user throughput of 3Mbps to 6Mbps. Fear of Fragmentation When Google and the Open Handset Alliance initially announced the open-source Android OS in 2007, much fear, uncertainty and doubt was spread about the likelihood that the OS would become fragmented. The reason: In an open environment, resellers and developers typically innovate on top of the OS to create competitive differentiation, which can cause fragmentation. “That said, Android did a very good job of the user interface, and fragmentation has been less than thought,” says Gartner’s Dulaney. “There is no fragmentation in the code base because developers must sign an agreement against that. But developers can innovate outside the core platform, which is where fragmentation can come in” in any OS, he explains. Still, Google has released a reported six iterations of Android in 19 months. Fragmentation is a concern for developers, who must differentiate between strains of OS and modify code for each strain, and ensure that users run the appropriate version of a program for their devices.
On the upside, Google's Android Market app store presents applications to only those devices capable of running it, notes Dulaney, helping automate interoperability among versions, devices and applications.
And the flurry of versions should subside. “Our product cycle is now, basically, twice a year, and it will probably end up being once a year when things start settling down,” Andy Rubin, Google's vice president of mobile platforms, recently told the San Jose Mercury News. He acknowledged that it’s hard for developers to keep up with a moving platform.
It appears that on the management front, different strains of Android are not much of an issue, either. A spokesman for MDM company Good, for example, says that it might have to build slightly different client management software agents, but “they are all supported through the same console,” so that the enterprise doesn’t perceive a difference in management. MDM vendors already supporting Android in addition to Good are MDSL, Sybase, SyncPointe, TelWares, and Trust Digital. The enhancements are encouraging other MDM vendors to support Android, too. A spokesman for MDM company MobileIron, says, “Android support is well underway in development. The Froyo release finally provides some of the basic security APIs our customers required.”
Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone OS 4, which is to be unleashed at Apple’s imminent Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, 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. Android already supports multi-tasking, which Yanez says is both a gift and a curse. “The only downside of Android’s true multi-tasking is battery drain,” he says. He says the Android HTC Eris device might only be 55% charged after an hour and a half of running Good and Pandora radio applications. iPhone’s support of multi-tasking in its OS 4 release could cause similar problems. “But I hear that with background processing on the iPhone will come a better battery,” says Yanez. And What of BlackBerry? Despite the new and improved versions of Android and iPhone OSs, BlackBerry currently remains king of the enterprise hill. Its inherent, top-down management and security has traditionally trumped all other attributes for IT and telecom departments, creating a huge installed base. Yet some of the MDM companies are working hard to replicate those capabilities on other handsets – and the Android and iPhone OSs natively continue to gain increasing enterprise characteristics. So it may only be a matter of time before RIM must compete on the slickness of its device – and even consider opening up more of its development APIs to others. For now, though, RIM prefers to create native applications itself and is fighting its competitors with an overhauled of its Mobile Voice System (MVS), Version 5 (see related story, “Getting Creative with Least-Cost Routing”). “MVS 5 strengthens RIM’s position in the enterprise,” says Manish Punjabi, senior director of collaborative mobile voice for RIM. MVS 5 is based on the Session Initiation Protocol, supports VoIP over Wi-Fi, and extends PBX dial plans and features to mobile phones. ( Joanie Wexler has spent a good part of her 20-year telecommunications career helping enterprises adapt to changing wireless networks and mobile devices. She has chronicled the cellular evolution from the days when 19.2 Kbps was the fastest data rate going and early personal communicators, like the Apple Newton and HP Palmtop, were paving the way for today's broadband wireless networks and smart phones. Today she continues to stay on the pulse of the wireless technology market as one of its leading independent authorities. Contact Joanie at joanie@jwexler.com. | 
