I’m wondering out loud what Samsung’s loss means to the enterprise. Samsung is the leading maker of smart phones which means that a good number of employees are looking to connect their Samsung Android device up to your corporate network. They’ve done more to make Android mainstream than any other manufacturer. In turn, there are some immediate and long term questions for both Samsung devices and the Android platform in general.
Samsung and the courts needs to answer some questions pretty quickly.
Will employees be able to receive emergency security patches for the Samsung created device? Will enhancements continue to come? Will Samsung be forced to remove functionality as part of any agreement with Apple? If current models continue to sold will this fork Android devices further by having the same model without infringing features? How will this integrate with existing enterprise Mobile Device Management (MDM) systems when it comes to apple mdm?
If you are in control of you enterprise mobile purchasing, support or BYOD catalog then you may want to really consider the impact of the judgement on not just Samsung but for all Android devices. Apple’s victory was so convincing that I can’t believe they will end their legal battles against Android just at this victory against Samsung.
