Has Salesforce killed the idea of BYOD?
With the announcement from Salesforce about only supporting a small number of Android devices and also cutting down the number of Apple devices what does this mean for organisations that have a BYOD policy or organisations that have standardised on a device not supported?
Even with organisations that issue devices, many employees still prefer to use their personal device so user frustration may even greater.
Before we go any further exactly what devices are NOT being supported?
Following the Winter ’17 release, Salesforce will no longer provide technical support, bug fixes or enhancements for Salesforce1 issues that arise on any of the following devices running the Salesforce1 downloadable and mobile browser apps: (see full knowledge article here)
They then go on to list…
- Phone 5
- iPhone 5C
- iPad Mini 2
- iPad Mini 3
- iPad 4
- All Android phones except for Samsung Galaxy S5, S6 and S7; Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Google Nexus 5X and Google Nexus 6P
- All Android tablets except for Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and the Samsung Tab A 9.7
Blimey!
Without going into an argument around the reasoning from Salesforce, it just shows how different and difficult mobile is for enterprise software, and how even the big SaaS vendors are struggling to keep a grip on it. So much more is outside of their control. This is not to criticise their approach, more to look at the ramifications and to question why other approaches cannot/have not been taken.
Are there comparisons from the desktop world?
Well it is pretty common for SaaS companies to set limits on browser versions and in some cases only supporting certain browsers — but dictating hardware age and manufacturer (for SaaS?). I’ve not heard of anything that stands out.
With 2 year contract cycles (or longer) common for device purchases/contracts, the 6 month notice from Salesforce is definitely going to irk some customers. But they do not really have a choice — at least if they want to continue using Salesforce1.
Why pick on hardware and not software?
For Apple this is not really an issue so much. Generally Apple give a decent push to all users to rise up to the next OS version. So hardware to a degree makes sense. Although if you are running a iphone 5/5c you’re not going to be too happy.
With Android though this is a much different beast. You can have brand new hardware running silly old Android versions — and you have handset manufacturers holding down the OS version due to their own implementation of Android — in essence you get stuck on a version of Android even though your hardware could easily handle (and often be improved) by upgrading.
This is one of the reasons I moved from Samsung devices to Nexus — I stand a much better chance of keeping up with the latest Android releases.
So it does seem strange.
“Due to the wide array of available Android devices, we are targeting our support to a select number of Android devices to continue improving our overall Salesforce1 for Android user experience,”
Is it really about fragmentation?
(or more to do with lack of resources, focus, and customer demand?)
Again not to takes sides (we know first hand the hassles of multiple devices and fragmentation), but really? If it is about fragmentation I would expect to see OS version limits coming into play.
If it is about the hardware spec that confuses even more— SF1 really only uses pretty standard hardware — common on many more devices than they have picked out.
With upwards of 80% of smartphones running Android — something around 1.3 billion handsets in 2015, the decision does not seem clear. But Salesforce know exactly which devices are hitting their APIs so we can only guess this has informed their decision.
Your community on a phone? — Surely BYOD?
What will this all mean if you have rolled out communities (where you have no control over the phone used) or if you have a BYOD policy for your employees?
My guess is not much. If Salesforce1 didn’t work before, it definitely won’t work now — so expect a canned response back on the support boards or app store/play store.
If you have a newer Android device that is not listed — which is pretty much any device bar latest Samsung (and Google’s own Nexus devices), then this will be a pretty hard pill to swallow. Even worse if you have just purchased 1000’s of HTC devices for your employees…
Tablets are an issue
I suppose we have to call out tablets as a special case here. The update for tablets is much slower and there are plenty of organisations we know who are running older ipads — and they are operating just fine.
This is going to be a big expense for them.
And Android tablets — well you only have a choice of two now — and this does not include Google’s own top notch Pixel C. You have to buy Samsung. Then get locked into an OS version — and so you’ll need to factor in 2 yearly upgrades if you want to have half a chance of Salesforce official support.
What to expect in the future?
More of the same.
When you really think about it when buying Apple you get the hardware and OS as a package. What we are likely to see (and already rumored) is Google getting in on the enterprise act with their own devices and of course their own OS.
So for large companies the choice for issued mobile devices will be Google or Apple (hardware/software combination). For all those smaller orgs who would go for a cheaper android handset they are going to have to rethink their device policy.
Oh and for all those mobile Salesforce communities? You really should be building custom apps anyway — and then you’ll see first hand the support that Salesforce has had to deal with! But seriously, as all companies become software companies, and then all companies are becoming app companies this is going to be a growing problem and not just one for Salesforce.
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I’m the CEO and cofounder of MobileCaddy. Always willing to chew the fat on DevOps, Mobile, SaaS, Salesforce — email justin@mobilecaddy.net
