Let’s kick this off with a few concerns before I go into the good stuff...
Now you need to stay with me here as there is some time travelling involved in this blog post... If at any point you find yourself stuck in the future don't worry just click your heels twice and your knees once to bring you back to the present.
Some History
Having had numerous conversations with colleagues and peers about why some fundamental issues have not been addressed by Google with the unveiling of Android, the most reoccurring subject revolves around the ‘policing’ of the ‘Market’ – I’m sorry let me rephrase ‘Play Shop’ for malicious apk files.
This is not an Android bashing blog I am a total Android head and will almost certainly not entertain any of the 'i-gadgets' out there, however the is a sore thumb for a number of people myself included. “Market place” aka “Play Shop” has been a slightly scary place for some in that one could easily pick up malicious apk files masquerading as something else.
So why is it that Daddy Google has not addressed this by putting a stop to it altogether oh wait ... this might be part of the master plan (scratches his head)! For a free and open community.
Is this the future? And is this where things are headed... Maybe it’s just my vivid imagination but hear me out;
Time Travelling to the Past (Don’t worry its only Last Year)
Google buys Motorola Mobility is announced in August 2011.... Ah ha! I knew there was some method to the madness. Google will have their own devices of which they will compete directly with the market leaders and players for the title of best device. In the process of doing this I am certain the issues related to the malicious apk files will be addressed.
Fast forwarding to present day
What good news it must be for Google... As mentioned in one of the publications I read it must be all high-fives at Google HQ.
Google’s acquisition of Motorola finally goes ahead so I figured I share my bizarre thoughts with you.
Btw well done Google and wish you the best for your future endeavours.
The DOJ approves Google's acquisition which to me means the next generation of super hand-held and smart devices are already under way.
Keeping an eye on this space I wonder what the newer version of the 'Nexoom' will look like and what sort of hardware we will be getting our hands on? Will it be the all anticipated super quad-core device or would it just blow everyone out of the water and have a 16 core?
Fast forwarding to the future say somewhere in 2015 or 2020
My take on this acquisition – Dominance and new and innovative ways of interacting with our devices and also extending their use beyond the current scope.
On the security note – my suspicion is that, the days of worrying about malicious apk's are over. I will further explain this with my cloud based theory.
In the future, our hand-held devices will be nothing more than a platform we use to interact with services I suspect. With technology having gone through several stages of evolution topping of on the ‘Cloud’, it is my belief that we shall soon be operating within a virtual environment for everything.
The thought provoking concept:
Imagine having a device that upon power up you will not have to wait for a good 30 seconds to a minute to get to interact with it. The boot up time will be overly quick as this will only require an initialisation from a TOM chip which houses the heartbeat which coupled with your personal SIM card registers you to a service in the cloud.
The next stages after registration will be the connection to a personal user space within the cloud which will allow the user of the device to interact with the services they require or desire. As an example let’s say I had my address book (Contacts for those smarty pants who might want to pick up on this) stored not locally but in the cloud and needed to send an email or make a call. This will be done by the user interacting with a service in the cloud compared to the conventional method of having the contacts saved locally on the device. The application for making a call will also be cloud based which will mean you the device will only change its interface depending on which function the user wants. This happens somewhat with the recent “ice-cream sandwich” as there are no dedicated keys meaning the menu and buttons adapt to the current function being performed.
The second bit of good news in terms of functionality related to security is that, as the services and data is not stored locally and one having to interact with a service through a device, this will most likely make life easier for the security conscious and administrators alike.
Another analogy – using my personal device for work by interacting with the services offered within the cloud. Nothing is to be stored on my device meaning issues relating to DLP will probably be easier to control as I believe administrators will have more visibility and be able to setup and restrict using the necessary policies more accurately. This is a holistic view to this and feel free to comment if you would want further explanation..
Secondly if the users entire experience happens within a virtual environment then should there be any concern for a breach, the environment is reset upon every registration and nothing will be a cause for concern on the localised device.
Some of this if not all already is in use however with Google having the abundance of services in the cloud on its portfolio, I can only intuitively guess this is a matter of time as this is where I see the future with our hand-held or devices.
Now you know my views, do you agree or disagree and do you have an opinion on malicious apk files becoming a thing of the past or do you think this is a very far fetched blog?
Comments are welcome.
