This post was written as part of Samsung’s Mobile May. Please do check-out all the other guest bloggers at the Samsung Developer site.
2010 was certainly the break-out year for Android. Apps for Android grew from an impressive 30K to an even more impressive 250K. Android devices have even surpassed iOS and are on the verge of surpassing RIM representing 40%+ of smartphone market share. The growth has been phenomenal but much of the focus has been consumer.
On par with Android’s rise, is the growth of tablets into the enterprise representing a new opportunity for developers. Although this initial growth began with the iPad, the Samsung Tab and other devices are beginning to take reign within enterprises at a rapid pace and I fully expect that in the next couple years, Android may become the dominant tablet platform. Let’s talk about some of the enterprise Android trends and opportunities for developers!
Individual Liable Devices
Tablets are rapidly being purchased by employees of the enterprise. Traditionally, enterprises would issue their devices to their employees known as corporate liable devices but with new mobile device management tools, employees can now use their own devices for accessing corporate data. Employees like this since it provides them choice (eg Samsung Tab 7 inch or 10 inch?); they can purchase what they want and use it for work much akin to using your own laptop in the office!
As a result, we have gone from maybe 20-30% of the employees in a typical enterprise being mobile enabled to 70%+. For the developer, this means demand! Employees want more apps from simple tools such as requesting a tax when I leave the office to more complex apps such as locating colleagues in the office via an in-door map – the opportunity is enormous!
Enterprise App Stores
Android’s “openness” allows enterprises to create their own app stores and thus why the Samsung Tab has been successful within the enterprise. If an enterprise for example, wanted to distribute an app to their employees, this would be difficult. Do I put it in the consumer App market? Or do I send a link to all my users and then re-send a link for each update? That would be quite painful!
Android’s openness has allowed for enterprise specific app stores where the enterprise can control which apps they want to distribute without having to submit them into the general app market.
As a developer, this means increased adoption and visibility for your enterprise apps. If you are listed in the company specific enterprise app store, you will certainly receive near 90%+ employee penetration! But with this, you must also keep in mind, that larger enterprises do request simple customization such as branding which is something you would need to accommodate.
Cloud Adoption
Enterprises are fragmented; their data resides in multiple tools (eg Exchange, Basecamp, Yammer, Salesforce Chatter). More and more of these tools reside in the cloud and many of these tools have mobile specific apps.
With enterprise adoption of cloud services, app developers can more easily integrate corporate data into their application much akin to connecting your app to Facebook or LinkedIn with OAuth. This is huge for developers since much time in traditional enterprise apps were spent building the custom integration into each “on-premise” system.
But equally important is Android’s multi-tasking architecture making it very easy to launch other applications amongst different mobile enterprise applications. For example, I could build a reader for enterprise news that feels seamlessly integrated with the Salesforce Chatter mobile application.
Conclusion
The Samsung Tab has been a great demonstration of the power of Android tablets. Although I fully expect that you will see these tablets in your living room and the backseat of your car, the enterprise has been taking the lead in tablet adoption and offers a great opportunity for developers to build applications!
Raj Singh's Mostly Tech Thoughts 