Did anyone see the new Samsung commercial this weekend? In it, a gaming company announces they will allow employees to bring any mobile device they want and use it in the office. There are some of the usual advertising tactics of making the cool kids the one using Samsung devices and the also rans. At the end of the day, the leaders of the company announce they will launch in four weeks. Guess who are the ones excited about such a short window?
The Samsung users.
Granted, this kind of commercial doesn’t draw the ire it used to. Whether you are promoting a soda, smartphone, clothing, or any other product, this is the theme your commercial will probably have at some point in time. Having played with a few of their offerings, I’m even inclined to think in that a Galaxy device might be a pretty cool thing to have.
Let’s not kid ourselves, however, Android is a long ways away from catching iOS in the realm of the enterprise.
Today’s link comes from Apple Insider (yes I know, consider the source) that argues this very idea. What I think many of us will realize, is there is a lot of truth hidden in these words. With the decline of RIM in the last half decade, it is only fair to assume the iPhone took the crown away from the Blackberry. Whether they intended to or not, Apple’s walled garden approach to hardware was made for big enterprise.
The value is of course tremendous. While many companies do not provide phones or devices, they would be more likely to select an iPhone over a Galaxy SIII if they did. Will it always be this way? Of course not. There is something to be said for developing a little residual inertia and riding it out. Microsoft made billions off of that principle.
It’s hard to say what device my kids will want to play with once I let them own one of their own. Thankfully, those days are far, far off. Regardless, if you want to be successful in enterprise products, you have to take a page out of the Apple playbook. Because of that, Android is going to be playing catch up for a while.
Chris Murman 