The Cellar - View Single Post

mbpark · 04-16-2011, 10:03 PM

We tried Android at work with some of the most demanding users you can have in doctors.

We used all Verizon devices, and had about 30 people hammering away at Android devices. We had the Droid X, Droid 2, and original Droid, all running at least Froyo (2.2). We had a few other devices from HTC in the mix as well.

Within 3 months, we had an OTA update blow away Exchange Server connectivity for several doctors. We had another OTA update screw up the calendar for another. The solution was Touchdown, which is $20 from the Market, and causes a mess when you change passwords because you have to change them twice. Touchdown is a great program, however, as it fixes the Exchange issues that Android has. Too bad it doesn't integrate well. The battery life on ActiveSync is outright horrible. I just turned off e-mail on a Droid X for someone because the battery life was down to under 6 hours.

Additionally, we had to have three sets of Android instructions for enterprise connectivity. One set was for the HTC Evo 4G, one was for the Droid 1 and 2 (which also works for the LG Ally and many other devices), and one was for the Droid X (Verizon apparently shipped half of them with Corporate Sync, and half with the standard Android utilities that the Droid 1 and 2 have).

Within three months, many of the doctors were clamoring for the iPhone, and one switched back to a Blackberry. We still get calls about calendaring problems on Android. The only people who still use theirs are the ones that have really tweaked their devices, or who are waiting for something else. The random reboots that we found didn't help either.

We also ran a separate test with the Blackberry Bold. I told our Verizon rep that we couldn't deploy it without causing issues with our staff due to performance issues. BB OS 6 has random slowdowns and crashes that 5.x does not have. Hopefully OS 6.1 will fix them.

We also tested the Palm Pre and Pre Plus, which functioned very well despite having the worst app store and an inability to display half the attachments we had it try to open. WebOS is really great otherwise, and integrated the Exchange Global Address List into the phone when you dialed by name. If you have Google, it would also integrate Google Contacts. It also integrates Facebook, LinkedIn, and other services directly into the phone dialer. Too bad HP's going to screw it up like they do with everything else they acquire, and they probably won't fix the PDF Viewer and Documents to Go issues we found.

We've been running several iPhones for the past two months. They just work. We have people that punish these phones on a daily basis on purpose to try and break them. So far, the only issue we found is with running a software update with Credant disk/USB encryption software enabled.

We've had Dell in as well trying to push the Streak for healthcare. I've talked with Dell about their Android initiatives, and flat-out told them that they needed to provide better administrative tools for mass field deployment like Apple and RIM offer, because Android just doesn't have them yet.

We've had Verizon in with the Motorola Xoom. When Google fixes the backward compatibility issues with the apps from Android Market, the overall stability issues with Honeycomb, and the enterprise deployment options that they need to have for mass deployment, then maybe we'll consider them. We crashed a Xoom within 5 minutes. We didn't break the iPad.

I'm no iSheep. I have a job where we have people who have been researching these devices for a large enterprise deployment for the past several months with the cooperation of major phone carriers.

We broke the latest Blackberry devices. We broke Android. We broke WebOS with PDF, Word, and Excel documents. We found one flaw with iOS, and it wasn't with them, it was with disk encryption software interfering with the "handshake" that a USB device had under Windows 7 Professional x64 Edition running Credant's USB device encryption software and 64-bit iTunes running a software update, i.e. a use case that very few people are going to see in real life.

In other words, Android looks nice, and it's completely tweakable, but it has a long way to go on many fronts to catch iOS. If HP got their head out of you know where, they might be able to have a contender. If RIM fixes their issues, they might be able to keep their market share and not lose more to iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

04-16-2011, 10:03 PM	#10
mbpark Lecturer Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Carmel, Indiana Posts: 761	Android is nice for individual users We tried Android at work with some of the most demanding users you can have in doctors. We used all Verizon devices, and had about 30 people hammering away at Android devices. We had the Droid X, Droid 2, and original Droid, all running at least Froyo (2.2). We had a few other devices from HTC in the mix as well. Within 3 months, we had an OTA update blow away Exchange Server connectivity for several doctors. We had another OTA update screw up the calendar for another. The solution was Touchdown, which is $20 from the Market, and causes a mess when you change passwords because you have to change them twice. Touchdown is a great program, however, as it fixes the Exchange issues that Android has. Too bad it doesn't integrate well. The battery life on ActiveSync is outright horrible. I just turned off e-mail on a Droid X for someone because the battery life was down to under 6 hours. Additionally, we had to have three sets of Android instructions for enterprise connectivity. One set was for the HTC Evo 4G, one was for the Droid 1 and 2 (which also works for the LG Ally and many other devices), and one was for the Droid X (Verizon apparently shipped half of them with Corporate Sync, and half with the standard Android utilities that the Droid 1 and 2 have). Within three months, many of the doctors were clamoring for the iPhone, and one switched back to a Blackberry. We still get calls about calendaring problems on Android. The only people who still use theirs are the ones that have really tweaked their devices, or who are waiting for something else. The random reboots that we found didn't help either. We also ran a separate test with the Blackberry Bold. I told our Verizon rep that we couldn't deploy it without causing issues with our staff due to performance issues. BB OS 6 has random slowdowns and crashes that 5.x does not have. Hopefully OS 6.1 will fix them. We also tested the Palm Pre and Pre Plus, which functioned very well despite having the worst app store and an inability to display half the attachments we had it try to open. WebOS is really great otherwise, and integrated the Exchange Global Address List into the phone when you dialed by name. If you have Google, it would also integrate Google Contacts. It also integrates Facebook, LinkedIn, and other services directly into the phone dialer. Too bad HP's going to screw it up like they do with everything else they acquire, and they probably won't fix the PDF Viewer and Documents to Go issues we found. We've been running several iPhones for the past two months. They just work. We have people that punish these phones on a daily basis on purpose to try and break them. So far, the only issue we found is with running a software update with Credant disk/USB encryption software enabled. We've had Dell in as well trying to push the Streak for healthcare. I've talked with Dell about their Android initiatives, and flat-out told them that they needed to provide better administrative tools for mass field deployment like Apple and RIM offer, because Android just doesn't have them yet. We've had Verizon in with the Motorola Xoom. When Google fixes the backward compatibility issues with the apps from Android Market, the overall stability issues with Honeycomb, and the enterprise deployment options that they need to have for mass deployment, then maybe we'll consider them. We crashed a Xoom within 5 minutes. We didn't break the iPad. I'm no iSheep. I have a job where we have people who have been researching these devices for a large enterprise deployment for the past several months with the cooperation of major phone carriers. We broke the latest Blackberry devices. We broke Android. We broke WebOS with PDF, Word, and Excel documents. We found one flaw with iOS, and it wasn't with them, it was with disk encryption software interfering with the "handshake" that a USB device had under Windows 7 Professional x64 Edition running Credant's USB device encryption software and 64-bit iTunes running a software update, i.e. a use case that very few people are going to see in real life. In other words, Android looks nice, and it's completely tweakable, but it has a long way to go on many fronts to catch iOS. If HP got their head out of you know where, they might be able to have a contender. If RIM fixes their issues, they might be able to keep their market share and not lose more to iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.