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Nokia leads Google-certified Android phones for enterprises

Gurugram, Oct 9 

When it comes to Android Enterprise Recommended (AER) smartphones validated by Google, Nokia leads the race among organizations as security become paramount, a new report said on Wednesday.

In India, there are only 40 smartphones which comply to AER norms, which makes it simple for businesses to confidently select, deploy and manage Android devices and services that meet elevated enterprise requirements validated by Google.

Nokia leads the choice with 16 such smartphones, followed by Motorola and Google with nine and eight options, respectively.

Out of these 40 AER-compliant smartphones, around five are not being sold anymore as they reached their end-of-life cycle. This leaves organistions with only 35 models to choose from in the country, said the report from market research firm techARC.

"It is important for CIOs to ensure enterprise-grade security and manageability of smartphones even if the ownership and possession may rest with the employees," said Faisal Kawoosa, Founder and Chief Analyst, techARC.

Android Enterprise Recommended (AER) norms help ensure that devices are up-to-date with regular security patches delivered within 90 days. These are rugged devices built to handle tough environments with protection against drops, dust and more.

Globally, there are 140 smartphones which are AER compliant as per Google guidelines. Out of these Nokia has 17 models, followed by Motorola with 15 models.

Although there are 22 brands selling AER compliant smartphones, there are not more than six popularly known brands like Nokia, Motorola, Google, Blackberry, LG and Sony Xperia.

Smartphones have graduated from add-on to default office communication device which means employees are using it for official correspondences, accessing enterprise apps, syncing data and contacts as well as downloading important, including confidential documents.

"This means potential threat to data privacy of organisations as well as chances of exploiting the whole IT infrastructure through one or the other vulnerability," said Kawoosa.

For CIOs to strictly implement AER smartphones policy in their organisations, they need to ensure that brands are available across price-points catering to the entire hierarchy of an organization," said the report.