Google Launches @android at Work – How Google’s BYOD for @google @android 5.0 Lollipop will win over Corporate and Enterprise World

“More than a billion people are bringing smartphones in their pockets to the workplace”

Director of product manager at Google, Rajen Sheth, commenting in a Press Release on the launch of Android at Work 

Google is now taking aim at the Corporate and Enterprise World, where the money is more lucrative and the lure of contracts will help monetize their projects.

Their latest initiative, launched Wednesday February 25^th 2015, is called Android at Work and aims to make Google Android robust and acceptable enough on your smartphone as the trend of BYOD (Bring your Own Device) continues to trend as noted in the article “With 'Android for Work,' Google hopes you'll use your phone on the job”, published February 25, 2015 11:00 AM PST, by Richard Nieva, CNET News.  

By making a work –flavored version of Google Android, they’re getting Google Android ready to work with Google Glass, which has also restructured for the Corporate and Enterprise World by killing off their Google Glass Explorer version as noted in my blog article entitled “@googleglass Explorer Program ends – Google Glass going Enterprise as Cheaper Version coming against Microsoft Hololens”.

This is gonna get interesting, as it suggests that Google Glass might be given to Corporate and Enterprise workers along with Android at work, specifically if they work in Technical fields such as Engineering or Medicine or even in the Military, such as the US Army or Navy!

Android at Work – Labled Apps means Work and Play on separate Homepages on the same smartphone

Android at Work differs from Facebook's approach at making a Work-Centric version of their Social Network called Facebook at Work.

Facebook at Work is really Facebook but loaded on a Server with loads of Facebok productivity tools and Apps accessible via on you company’s Private  Cloud via their intranet using Facebook at Work Apps as explained in my blog article entitled “Facebook at Work goes Corporate and Enterprise - 1.3 billion Active Monthly users is Riding BYOD Trend via Familiarity”.

Instead, with Android at Work, being as it's the OS that resides in your smartphone, you are given separate user profiles for your worklife and the other for your personal life. But instead of having to log in and out of profiles as you'd do in a Microsoft Windows environment, you instead toggle between the two (2) accounts in real time to access your Google Docs, Calendar, Forms and other Productivity Apps specifically tailored for Work

This is done by making the Apps co-exist on your Google Android screen with labels to identify which is which. So your work Apps are labeled with orange briefcase badges with the title indicating that they are for work e.g. “Work Mail” or “Work Chrome”.

I suspect that most workers would then place their work Apps on one Homepage and their play app on another Homepage, thereby allowing their work and play Apps to live side by side. No need to lug around that ugly company Blackberry; now both your work and play life can live on the same smartphone.

Android at Work – How Google’s BYOD for Google Android 5.0 Lollipop will be a hit in the Corporate and Enterprise World

They've even revamped the Google Play Store, making it an enterprise-ready version that allows IT staff to make their own Apps and deploy and manage their Apps. These Apps are being developed in collaboration with companies such as SAP, Citrix, Samsung, Sony, Box and Adobe, so they’ll be ready-to-work straight out of the Enterprise version of the Google Play Store….or is that the Google Work Store.

Most notable of their collaborators is Samsung, with whom they've collaborated to bake aspects of Samsung KNOX, the South Korean company Secure Enterprise Security Platform as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “AnyConnect for Samsung Knox is a Cisco Systems partnership for Secure VPN Communications”.

Google is also teaming up with Blackberry, whose BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) is currently the Corporate and Enterprise Security Gold standard when it comes to VPN (Virtual Private Network) Security while working in the Cloud as noted in the article “Google's Android for Work Wants to Handle Your Business Data”, published FEBRUARY 25, 2015 03:40PM EST BY CHLOE ALBANESIUS, PC Magazine.

In fact, Google, Samsung and Blackberry are all bating on the same team it seems with the Corporate and Enterprise contracts being their main prize as noted in the article “BlackBerry Launches BES12, Samsung Knox Support”, published NOVEMBER 13, 2014 01:30PM EST BY DAMON POETER, PC Magazine.

Thanks to these collaboration, Google Android 5.0 Lollipop is Corporate and Enterprise Ready as explained in the article “Android L builds on Samsung's Knox fortifications”, published July 22, 2014 7:59 AM PD by Seth Rosenblatt, CNET News.

Google had announced Android at Work some eight (8) months ago, around the same time they’d announced their plans for Google Android 5.0 Lollipop as noted in the article “Google Releases Work Tools Designed for Android Phones”, published Feb 25, 2015, 3:09 PM ET By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, ABC News.

Google clearly is gunning after the same Corporate and Enterprise users that Apple and IBM are aiming for with their IBMMobileFirst for iOS as noted in my blog article entitled “Apple and IBM for IBM MobileFirst for iOS – How Apple with IBM Cloud Computing indicates Apple-Microsoft-IBM-Google Deal Possible in the Future”.

So will Google's latest initiative succeed?

It will once they can convince people to upgrade to Google Android 5.0 Lollipop as they're no longer providing security solutions for smartphones users running older versions of Google Android as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Android Browser Security unfixed as Google wants you to Upgrade to Lollipop”.

Once they can solve the fragmentation by getting customer to buy into the latest version of Google Android, the Corporate and Enterprise world will take Google's commitment to Security more seriously.