Samsung Galaxy S4 Is Now Pentagon Approved

The good news for the Samsung Company is that the Pentagon gives official approval to any Samsung device which has Knox security software protection. For now it only includes the Samsung Galaxy S4.

On Friday, the official announcement made by the company was released: the Knox-enabled mobile devices have been approved by the Pentagon for government use. This is a great accomplishment for the company, as now it becomes even better positioned on the market.

For those of you who don’t know, the Knox software powered by Samsung has the following features:

-       It offers high-level encryption

-       It provides a way to separate the personal data from the work data

-       It has a VPN feature.

What is even more important is that the software gives the IT administrators the ability to manage a mobile device using certain policies.

As we already said, the only Samsung device which has the Knox technology is the Galaxy S4. Still, there are other smart phones and tablets in plan to receive the security software. If this happens, they might all receive “free pass” to Pentagon.

What does the access to Pentagon mean for the Samsung Company?

In fact, the access means that the S4 in step one and the other Knox devices to come will be used by the U.S. government and military departments that have to work with the Department of Defense networks. This type of access implies high security standards. According to the Samsung Company, the first Android phone to meet all the necessary requirements is the Samsung Galaxy S4.

What is even great is that this is an opportunity of new business for the company, as the new security system brings in new types of businesses as potential new Samsung clients. This is a great accomplishment.

The Samsung’s Mobile President JK Shin himself officially announced the news according to which the U.S. Department of Defense has approved Samsung Knox-enabled devices for use in DoD networks.

Also, what is important for the company’s increase is that the usage of Samsung devices – both smart phones and tablets – will be enabled in the government agencies and state industries (e.g. Health care and financial services).

Mr. Shin said that this is a great step for the Samsung company as one of the missions they have is growing the relationships within the large corporate multinationals and also the public institutions, such as the Government.

One day earlier, the Pentagon gave approval to the Blackberry devices – which means that the Blackberry 10 operating system – to be more concrete the Q10 and Z10 smart phones along with the Playbook tablets will be able to be used by the US official within the Government.

 

The history for the Blackberry brand is that it was the “go-to vendor” for the official businesses, as it has a high-level security on its devices. Of course, the competitors Apple and Android began to work on this issue and they want to gain the market share on this particular business also. The only one which has managed to win in the territory until now is the Samsung company with the Knox software.

The SAFE (which is part of the Samsung for Enterprise initiative) requires that Knox should address to all major security holes in Android, as the company confirms.

As we already mentioned, Knox has the ability to keep personal and business data separately. This is a feature that can be compared to the BB10 called Blackberry Balance.

After the announcement that Samsung is going to earn Pentagon, the Blackberry officials didn’t seem concerned about Samsung being a direct competitor on this area. Earlier in February, the executive vice president of the Blackberry company, David Smith, mentioned that no matter what the other competitors announce, one thing is clear: the BlackBerry device which is running on a BlackBerry platform is the most secure solution for the Government.

One piece is still out of the table and this is the Apple Company. They want to receive approval from the Department of Defense for the mobile device they produce. According to the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, the approval for the Apple is expected in the next few weeks. What is left is to certify that the iOS 6 operating system is secure enough for the military and the defense agencies. Still, to pass the government’s security test does not mean that the devices will win sales on this market.

According to the interview of a Defense Department spokesman in the Journal, the approvals don’t mean product orders, but all they do is facilitate the process (eliminate one step) as there will be no need for other security reviews at the DOD organization level.

If Apple will win the security approval, then all the three rivals will have to start to fight over government contracts, treating this as an individual market from the business world.

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