Android Deemed Not Ready for Enterprise, Limited Support for ActiveSync

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In its January report, J. Gold Associates LLC stated that it expected: “to see a significant increase in market share for Android, becoming third behind Symbian and BlackBerry by 2013, with iPhone in fourth place.”

In its June report, the analyst group rescinded the prediction, instead saying: “Android is not ready for the enterprise.” Why the turnaround? The limited support for ActiveSync, and perhaps more importantly the lack of communication about when it may be resolved, has caused them to re-evaluate the predicted Android market share.

“The primary fault lies in the inability of Android to enforce key corporate polices set within Exchange so companies can assure compliance before allowing a device to connect. And while third-party apps exist that ‘trick’ the Exchange server into thinking the policies (e.g., wipe, complex password, VPN, etc.) have been set, the current implementation of Android (2.1) doesn’t allow such settings to be enforced,“ notes analyst Jack Gold in his report.

Gold goes on to note that the upcoming Android version 2.2 while improved, still does not have enterprise-class policy enforcement. The firm believes that as a result, other major mobile OSes are better suited for the enterprise.

The report offers a nice OS comparative chart in its June 15 Technology Brief.