By Fiercecio
Much has been said about the havoc that workers can bring to the corporate IT environment when they insist on using iPhones, iPads and other devices designed for consumers. Less has been said about the impact of Android devices, but Tom Kaneshige at CIO magazine cautions that these devices could blindside CIOs if they're not prepared.
The greatest difficulty will result from the fragmented nature of Android, Kaneshige warns. There are myriad Android devices using different versions of the operating system, making it complicated to support the technology. Different versions present different capabilities for managing devices, and manufacturers have been developing different user interfaces.
"An Android HTC Evo phone might be running the latest version of Android OS, but other HTC devices are stuck on earlier OS versions," he writes. "HTC's graphical user interface, called Sense, has different versions as well. Samsung has its own interface, called TouchWiz."
Carriers aren't making things easier by introducing their own changes. Kaneshige notes that AT&T doesn't allow users to load apps apart from the Android Market, and if you're using the Samsung Fascinate on Verizon's network you have Bing as the default search engine. "The combination of configurations is mindboggling," he writes.
While Apple devices present a total of nine software/hardware configurations for now, Android devices may present approximately 900. That could keep a help desk very busy for some time.
Much has been said about the havoc that workers can bring to the corporate IT environment when they insist on using iPhones, iPads and other devices designed for consumers. Less has been said about the impact of Android devices, but Tom Kaneshige at CIO magazine cautions that these devices could blindside CIOs if they're not prepared.
The greatest difficulty will result from the fragmented nature of Android, Kaneshige warns. There are myriad Android devices using different versions of the operating system, making it complicated to support the technology. Different versions present different capabilities for managing devices, and manufacturers have been developing different user interfaces.
"An Android HTC Evo phone might be running the latest version of Android OS, but other HTC devices are stuck on earlier OS versions," he writes. "HTC's graphical user interface, called Sense, has different versions as well. Samsung has its own interface, called TouchWiz."
Carriers aren't making things easier by introducing their own changes. Kaneshige notes that AT&T doesn't allow users to load apps apart from the Android Market, and if you're using the Samsung Fascinate on Verizon's network you have Bing as the default search engine. "The combination of configurations is mindboggling," he writes.
While Apple devices present a total of nine software/hardware configurations for now, Android devices may present approximately 900. That could keep a help desk very busy for some time.
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