Samsung left off Google's new official Androids-for-biz list

Five carriers make the cut, plus 32 mobile management apps - and four Chinese phone-makers

Google has launched an Android Enterprise Recommended program it says " makes it simple for businesses to confidently select, deploy and manage Android devices and services that meet elevated enterprise requirements validated by Google" and has left Samsung off the list.

Samsung's exclusion is not a sign of a rift between Google and the planet's biggest Android-slinger. It's probably instead an artefact of the rather stringent list of qualities a handset must possess to earn Google's seal of approval, among them offering Google Play as the default app store. Many Samsung devices include an app for the company's own app store. Google also demands security updates delivered every 90 days, Android 7.0 or higher, 32GB of storage, 2GB of RAM, and support for the next major Android upgrade, which are all available on many Samsung devices. Samsung also ticks the box for mass enrolment of devices.

Google's said admissions to the program remain open, so perhaps Samsung will make it in at a later date. Or perhaps it will back its own Knox platform and channel to win enterprise customers.

The Enterprise program has also named approved carriers capable of delivering zero-touch enrolment, namely SoftBank, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Verizon and BT. 32 enterprise mobility management vendors have been approved under the program.

Samsung's exclusion means would-be users of the Enterprise Recommended program will have to make do with the handsets listed here, and made by Google itself, Sony, LG, Motorola, Huawei, BlackBerry and Nokia.

Buyers may be leery of Huawei machines given that leaders of the United States security and intelligence apparatus last week said they find Huawei phones worrisome on national security grounds and would rather they don't connect to US networks. The Register notes that BlackBerry is now a Chinese concern, as is Motorola, and that Nokia's kit is made in China. ®

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