With Android For Work, Your Rugged Tablets Will Work Better For You

By Ron Harter, Xplore

It’s common knowledge that between BYOD strategies and the rise of business-class mobile computers, many companies are trying to make devices better suited for consumer applications work within enterprise mobility environments. Yes, it may seem like you’re saving money when you buy a less-expensive off-the-shelf tablet PC for your military, factory, warehouse, public safety, energy, transportation, or field operations. But put a non-ruggedized tablet to work on a piece of heavy machinery, on a flight line near a jet engine, on a fire truck without shocks – or anywhere that water, dust, vibrations, fuels, grease, or salt fog is prevalent – and that device isn’t going to work for very long. Even if it does have a “rugged” case. That means that “buy in bulk” discount you may have received to further lower the price of off-the-shelf computers even more is going to become irrelevant. You’re going to end up buying replacements so often – perhaps even less than the 1-2 years churn common for commercial grade devices – that you’ll spend more money supplying multiple mobile devices per worker or workflow.

That being said, my goal today was not to focus on the pros and cons of rugged vs. non-rugged devices today – at least not from a durability perspective. Rather, I want to address another differentiator that is just as impactful on the Total Cost of Ownership for mobile devices but not always given due consideration: the OS. But not Windows vs. Android. Each organization has their very valid reasons why they prefer one over the other, and Xplore supports both so we’re certainly not in a position to advocate more strongly for either side.