As a feature of Samsung’s SAFE program (SAmsung For Enterprise), they have released a new technology, Samsung Knox. It allows you to divide your phone in two – a work side and a personal side. It is an attractive idea. Phones can get quite busy with apps for both home and work. You can have productivity apps for work, games that you like to play on the train into work, documents for work, and music that you like to listen to at home. And if you don’t have one phone trying to handle it all, you have two phones – one supplied by your employer and another in use as your personal phone.
With Samsung Safe, you can divide your smartphone in two. Your work apps and documents will stay on that side of the phone. Your games and music will stay on that side of your phone. It’s the perfect solution, at least that’s what Samsung is betting on. Knox is available right now on the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II. It’s not an entirely new idea, though. VMware, LG, and Blackberry all offer something similar. And VMware tried to bring it to iPhone as well; however, Apple wasn’t going to allow it. The closest they could get was an app that lets IT professionals install apps onto your personal iPhone. It’s hardly a perfect solution. The question is if this strategy is going to work for Samsung. Will Knox be enough to have employers buying them en masse for their employees? Will these employees be dumping their iPhones or other smartphones just for the chance to only carry one phone?
While it might buy Samsung a little bit of an edge in the market, it seems unlikely that it would provide that much of a turnaround, as attractive as the idea does sound. The smartphone market has developed into one that is very loyal. While I do know some people who would make a switch, I wouldn’t give up my iPhone for anything, and even my son won’t give up his Motorola, even for another Android like Samsung. Let’s hear from you. Would you be willing to give up your personal smartphone, especially a different platform, in order to carry a phone equipped with Samsung Knox?
