With the growth in BYOD, large corporate tablet deployments have been limited outside the education sector, but American Airlines represents one of the larger corporate deployments with an installed base of 33,000 units. Recently the airline snubbed Apple (after initially taking 10,000 iPads), by opting to order 17,000 Galaxy Tabs in addition a large order (also 17,000) Galaxy Note "phablet" devices as highlighted here: http://www.businessinsider.com/american-airlines-picks-samsung-not-apple-2013-3

The key reasons for opting for the Samsung devices were cited as usability and Samsung's SAFE security features that more easily enabled the devices to be made compliant with AA's infrastructure (we suspect cost per unit and volume discount was also a factor, although that obviously wasn't cited!)

So how secure is Android becoming and is it viable for corporate deployments yet? In our blog entry back in 2010, it was a resounding "no", but since then OEMs and third party MDM vendors from Airwatch and Good to Mobile Iron have made securing Android a priority for their MDM offerings. Moreover, the NSA has developed a version of Android called SE Android (Security Enhanced) that has resolved a number of the issues around the on-device OS itself and has been adopted by Samsung for Knox.

Samsung has done an admirable job on security with the addition of Knox to its SAFE program which adds:

1. A Fully Secure Boot Chain and platform security through the use of SE Android (Security Enhanced Linux for Android.
2.  A Container Solution that allows for delineation and management of personal and business profiles and is similar to those offered by Good for Enterprise and other third party vendors.

 Samsung has done a good job of opening the relevant APIs to third party MDM providers (now over 700 APIs available and over 353 IT policies) to enable management and control of various elements that are at risk. The introduction of Knox makes the Operating System much more secure and builds on the incremental improvements to Android security over the recent versions of the platform.

With Samsung seemingly leading the way among OEMs on Android security (Google has seemingly disbanded the 3LM group at Motorola Mobility), questions over standardisation and fragmentation among different versions of Android and different OEMs are inevitably raised. Who is driving security standards for Android? With open source platforms, these challenges will remain. Nevertheless, with the high security standards that have been set in place with SAFE and now Knox mean that Samsung will increasingly be more credible through the corporate direct channel as well as in the hands of the users via BYOD.

A detailed analysis of SAFE and Knox is available in this Strategy Analytics Mobile Workforce Strategies (MWS) report: Is Samsung making Android SAFE for Enterprises with Knox? A detailed mobile platform analysis and assessment of end-to-end architecture and the importance of a layered security approach is available in this Strategy Analytics Mobile Workforce Strategies (MWS) report: TCO & Security of Enterprise Grade Mobility.

In an ever-flattening world, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) have more opportunities to expand and accelerate growth and increase profitability. Just like their large enterprise counterparts, SMBs (with 1 to 250 employees) seek growth and new opportunities through their mobile workforces. The smartphone and tablet market specifically and the mobility market generally in Western Europe is dynamic.

The playing field for smartphones and tablets is crowded and competitive and the SMB segment is a serious user of mobile applications. In this published report, we provide survey findings concerning trends and developments in the SMB segment. It also presents a view of mobile cloud developments created as part of key Mobile Operators? (Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile/TSystems and Telef?nica) core services and their strategies to meet SMB IT needs in Western Europe.

? In Western Europe, there are approximately 139 million workers in the SMB workforce and 40% are mobile

? 65.6% of surveyed SMBs have increased mobile devices spending in the last 12 months, while 33.2% kept spending constant.

? According to Strategy Analytics? 2012 enterprise survey, cloud computing offers SMBs better visibility, scalability and reliability

Other key questions answered in our Western Europe Enterprise Survey -Mobile Operators as a Channel for SMBs include.

What benefits can enterprises derive from wireless solutions?

What does the SMB workforce want and need?

What can organizations do to more effectively manage technology rollout?

Clients can access the full presentation report here. or contact the report author Gina Luk gluk@strategyanalytics.com

Today's news that Verizon has purchased Hughes Telematics business for a reported $612M is just the latest example of consolidation in the M2M market as noted by our M2M service.

In our February 2012 insight we predicted that ?2012 will represent a year of major change, as consolidation among various players in the M2M value chain continues and mobile operators look to move up the value chain through creation or extension of M2M service platforms. Fragmentation issues will be more readily addressed in 2012 but there is still a long way to go.

The opportunity in M2M is huge. How huge, well somewhere between our conservative 5B+ connections and more bullish 50B from other sources out there.

We have already seen significant consolidation with operators like Deutsche Telekom looking to expand and enhance their position for the next big thing.. the Internet of Things. Now Verizon for a modest sum is beefing up its enterprise solutions assets. Several other examples include: AT&T extending its position in M2M application development with a U.S. reseller agreement with Axeda Corporation, an exclusive among major U.S. mobile carriers. The AT&T M2M Application Platform Powered by Axeda is designed to streamline the development of M2M applications to enable more rapid deployments at lower cost. Verizon acquiring the remaining 50% of nPhase, its joint venture for the M2M business it formed with Qualcomm in 2009 nPhase provisioning and back-end M2M systems combined with Verizon's sales force and distribution channel was envisaged as making it easier and faster for companies to get their M2M devices running on Verizon's network.

2012 will be a transition year that sees large SIs start to look more seriously at very large projects in the M2M market.

Significant consolidation has already happened among module makers and the next phase of market development is likely to be more consolidation but also expanded partnerships.

Strategy Analytics believes that carriers are well placed to offer developer toolkits and also be a forum for developers to share information and knowledge, as well as potentially creating opportunities to aggregate and showcase developer applications.

Client Reading

Strategy Analytics projects the global UC software and services market will surpass the $7 billion revenue mark in 2011 and achieve an annual growth rate of 9%

With one out of every three workers in the global workforce being mobile, any UC or fixed-mobile converged solution that does not have mobile at its core is not addressing the needs of businesses.

Mobile UC solutions are designed to streamline and improve the mobile worker's ability to communicate and share information with colleagues, customers, and partners. The market for such solutions is still emerging and consists of a disparate group of vendors driven by the rise in personal-liable purchasing, the need for cost cutting, and the availability of mobile device management (MDM) solutions to manage such devices

The market for such solutions is still emerging and consists of a disparate group of vendors including enterprise networking/telecom customer premises equipment (CPE) providers (e.g. Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco, Siemens), mobile platform and software providers (e.g. IBM, Microsoft, Nokia, RIM), and pure-play mobile UC vendors (e.g. Aastra, DiVitas, ShoreTel - Agito Networks). Several other players exist in this market, and more are sure to emerge, but those included in this report comprise the most visible in the market today.

Client reading