So, after much hype and anticipation, the T-Mobile G1 smartphone is now out. Google's Android platform will now officially compete with the likes of Symbian, BlackBerry, LiMo, the iPhone and Windows Mobile.
Early reviews of the pre-production devices that were shown at the launch have been mixed, but that's not surprising for a brand new platform. The question is, does the G1 and Google's Android platform have a place in enterprise mobility?
Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few months, you know that Google has developed an open-source operating system geared towards smartphones and other devices. I saw a beta version of the G1 a few months back, and I was rather impressed with the look and feel of the device, as well as the general performance of the operating system. It wasn't surprising to see how deeply integrated Google's services were in the device...after all, Google wants to use Android as another way for people to use its search engine and its ancillary applications.
There's a lot to like about the device, but it also does have some key things missing as well delineated here and here. Kent German at CNet put at the top of his list the lack of Exchange server support. He goes on to say:
Sure, this may come later, but this is a glaring omission on any handset that's hoping for a slice of the smartphone pie. Of course, that also means there's no Outlook calendar and contacts syncing, either.
Unless Kent has a great dealer, I think he's completely off the mark here. In all seriousness, I think hell will freeze over before Microsoft licenses ActiveSync to its arch nemesis. This is very different from the fact that Microsoft has licensed ActiveSync to Nokia or Apple. Look at how it's done on the iPhone....it's not a full license and does not give complete syncing to Exchange. So let's assume I'm right (ha ha) and that Google will never get it's hands on that technology. Does it need it? In the enterprise, yes...but what about for small businesses? No.
Google has its Google Apps solution, which is getting powerful enough that multi-billion dollar organizations are starting to strongly consider it. I can't find the link, but I read a very interesting article recently regarding some global company that was thinking about ditching MS Office for Google Apps. That's pretty compelling to me. So if companies, and particularly SMBs are increasingly adopting Google Apps for their day to day work, what's preventing them from using Android devices to access those Google Apps? Nothing. Zilch. Nada.
The bottom line is that while I doubt the Android platform will ever be enterprise grade, I do feel that it could make interesting inroads into the SMB space, particularly with organizations that have already begun adopting Google Apps in lieu of MS Office. Microsoft should be pretty worried about that...not just in the mobile group, but in the groups responsible for Exchange and Office. Android and the Google Cloud can potentially become a serious threat to our friends in Redmond. Microsoft had better come up with something soon - and it better be good or else it will have an even bigger reason to hate Google.
