Google targets businesses with work tools for Android

SAN FRANCISCO — Google is releasing a set of tools designed for businesses and employees who want to get work done on Android-powered smartphones, setting up a skirmish on another key front of mobile computing.

The technology, unveiled on Wednesday, launches Google’s attempt to turn Android phones into the digital hub of people’s personal and professional lives. The expansion will pit Google against Microsoft and BlackBerry, which have been focusing on the corporate market for years.

Google will also be duelling its biggest rival in mobile computing, Apple, which forged a partnership with IBM last year to build more iPhone and iPad applications tailored for businesses and government agencies.

Google and Apple have become so dominant that 96 per cent of the smartphones sold last year run on the companies’ software, said research firm IDC. But most people use those phones to take pictures, message their friends, check Facebook or Twitter and engage in other personal endeavours.

As part of efforts to entice and make it more convenient for people to transplant more of their professional lives on to their phones, the companies are rolling out more business-oriented applications and tougher security to make employers feel more comfortable about their workers using their phones for their jobs.

Google said on its official blog that its Android for Work programme will provide improved security and management features for corporations that want to give their employees Android smartphones.

Smartphones supported by the new initiative will be able to keep an employee’s work and personal apps separate, and a special Android for Work app will allow businesses to oversee key tools such as email, calendar and contacts. Agencies