Google’s incredibly serious about making Android appealing to the enterprise and the broader universe of business users. That’s the official line, at least – and the narrative its been pushing hard since launching its Android Enterprise Recommended programme in February 2018.
Android Enterprise Recommended, the company told our colleagues at Computerworld, would be a “Google-led global initiative that raises the bar of excellence for enterprise devices and services”. It’d establish “best practices and common requirements” for business-ready Android devices, and it’d ensure any phone with the stamp of approval provided a professional and properly supported experience without all of the common ecosystem asterisks.
It certainly sounds smart and sensible. The enterprise realm in particular is closely tuned into security and data protection, and having workers carry devices that don’t receive timely and reliable software updates – whether we’re talking about the monthly security patches or the bigger OS releases around them – poses an unacceptable risk for any cautious organization.
Some four years after its launch, though, Google’s Android Enterprise Recommended programme seems to have devolved into a mostly meaningless afterthought. There’s a disconcerting disconnect between the programme’s front-facing promise and what you find when you dig deeply into its offerings and look closely at what’s actually happening with the devices it’s endorsed.
And for any company that’s relying on
