With more than 300,000 devices activated per day globally, Android is seeing rapid adoption in the post-PC era. Android works quite well with Google Apps, but Google is also trying to increase the Android’s adoption by IT at businesses and schools.
And, to this end Google has announced three updates. These products will be available to all Google Apps for Business and Google Apps for education customers.
The first update is for Google Apps Device Policy application, which allows employees to quickly secure a lost or stolen Android 2.2+ device by locating it on a map, ringing the device, and resetting the device PIN or Password remotely via the new ‘My Devices’ website.
The other update gives Google Apps administrators an option in the control panel to “Encrypt Data on Device”, which will now include requiring encrypted storage on Android 3.0 tablets. Devices will need version 2.0 of the Google Apps Device Policy app.
Google has also introduced a new corporate contacts app, Google Apps Lookup, which makes it easier to find and contact people in your organisation. Type (or speak) the name or email address of a coworker, and then tap to call, email, IM or send a text message. Lookup pulls information from the Google Apps directory, so IT administrators need to enable “Shared Contacts” in the control panel before employees can use Lookup on their Android 2.1+ devices.
Google has also said that it will bring in more updates to make Android better suited for enterprise customers. These updates will make Android much more secure even for other consumers, whose phone is out of the enterprise security zones.
Currently Blackberry smartphones dominate the enterprise segment, and Google will be able to beat this dominance only if it is able to provide similar amount of security and control to Android devices.