Will Android Reach The Enterprise?

If you're watching Google Android devices, news and general buzz, you're aware it's making some serious noise in the smart phone market.  There are more and more pre-announce rumors, that usually turn into fact, it feels like every day.  There are several Netbook and Tablet devices announcements and pre-announce rumors showing up at a faster rate. I'm not going to name these devices or vendors here.  A quick few searches and you'll find them. I find the larger screen devices particularly interesting. As an aside, I'm interested in comments on how that impacts 3rd party Android application developers.

To date, I view these Android devices as "personal" or consumer oriented. They are not devices that are tightly integrated with enterprise communications or unified communications solutions.  They are usually owned personally rather than purchased by the users employer.

Yes, one can, and many do, argue that a smart phone is part of the enterprise communication landscape. I agree they are given today's world of mobility and accessing nearly anything from anywhere. There are vendors, Avaya included, doing a very nice job at smart phone access to core communication system services via a client application on the smart phone and interfaces into the core servers.  This enables these 3rd party (from the communication systems perspective) devices to be enabled into the enterprise.

Will Android-based devices be adopted in the Enterprise in a broader sense?  Will Android find it's way into devices and applications that are a tightly integrated member of the communications solutions used by businesses?


Factors to Consider From The Enterprise "Buyer" Perspective
Google Android is open source and for some that could raise cautions

• Quality: Some may view open source as having at least some additional quality risk.  An older example is Linux.  Early on I think the same concerns existed with it.  That concern doesn't exist today.  Enterprise adoption of Android products may depend on how rapidly Android devices establish a solid quality reputation.
• Predictability: According to some of my smart phone developer contacts in the know, to date, this open source has been difficult to pin down and track   Enhancements, fixes and release dates are not very predictable or committed.  Will enterprise customers be able to adapt to less certainty about when new features or software updates will be available?
• Rapid Evolution: The code base is also a quickly moving target.  That's a double-edged sword.  Not having to wait long periods of time for new features and APIs is a good thing.  On the other hand, it may make it difficult to keep sliding new updates underneath applications that rapidly.  Another factor may be if, and to what extent, this evolution impacts applications that were written for older releases.  The level of backward compatibility, or not, could be a negative either in effort or in delaying upgrades. Many enterprises have significant internal roll-out and testing intervals before fully deploying new or updated products to their end users.  Frequent updates may not be easily supported in this environment.  I believe enterprises will be refining how the adopt and deploy.  Technology is moving more rapidly and they are likely looking at how to update and deploy more quickly.
• Other choices:  I don't intend to get into this debate here but there are other platform choices that Android will have to compete with.  ChromeOS and Windows Mobile are a couple quick examples.  The iPhone platform is tied strictly to that device so it's not a factor unless Apple changes that policy.

My Expectations

• Smart phones continue to be highly adopted.  If Android penetrates this market the way many predict it will, it's completeness, confidence and quality will rise along with it.  
• Application availability on Android will continue to rise at a rapid rate.  It may never catch up to iPhone but I don't believe that will matter much.   I expect many of the most popular applications will support Android to mirror the increasing deployment of Android phones.  In short, largely due to smart phone adoption, Android shouldn't be a negative factor in considering a device for the enterprise.
• The smart phone experience is rapidly changing end user expectations.  End users, both for personal use or on their communication devices at work, are demanding and expecting much more than "phone" capability on their communication devices.  Enterprise devices based on Android can benefit from the application availability and app store ecosystem.

I won't predict to what level Android-based devices will move into the enterprise but I believe they will over the next year or two.  What do you think?  Comments welcome both from the product development and buyer perspective.

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