Security Concerns May Hamper Enterprise's Adoption of Google Nexus One

Posted 01/07/2010 at 6:05am | by Paul Lilly

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Google made at splash at CES yesterday by officially unveiling its Nexus One smartphone "super phone," and while the device has garnered a range of responses, Google may have an even tougher time breaking into the enterprise market where security is the primary concern.

"Nexus One is running on Android 2.1, the latest update, so is equivalent to iPhone 1.0 and the first version of WebOS," said Dan Dearing, vice president of marketing at Trust Digital. "WebOS has improved its security to be on par with iPhone 2.0. [But] the iPhone 3GS provides the most comprehensive security controls with the addition of hardware-based encryption."

Dearing went on to claim that businesses are increasingly choosing the iPhone 3GS over competing devices, though that too also has security issues. But one of the roadblocks that could prevent the Nexus One from seeing a ton of enterprise use is the lack of a centralized model for distributing signed apps, says Forrester Researcher analyst Andrew Jaquith.

"In Android, you can sign your own applications, and what those applications do is left up to the developer, for good or ill," Jaquith said. "With the iPhone, Apple's stated intent with their approval process is to make sure the applications aren't doing anything naughty or using banned APIs. Unlike Android, Apple can yank a developer's certificate if it needs to."