The smart phone industry is expanding greatly, and business users are left wondering which smart phones best match their needs. While BlackBerry has been the historic winner, many businesspeople are starting to look much more seriously at Android as a strong contender.

What makes Android so attractive to business users? This can be broken down into a few key areas: flexibility and choice, pricing, apps and software, and business integration.

Flexibility: On the whole, Android presents a lot of flexibility for users – they can choose from a variety of phones, a variety of providers, and an app store that is not heavily regulated (unlike Apple’s App Store). Business users have differing needs depending on their industries, position, and even lifestyle, and Android makes it easier to find a smart phone that’s a perfect match.
Applications: On other mobile operating systems, applications are heavily policed. While this has some advantages in terms of reliability, it also means that one company is choosing exactly what people do and do not want on their mobile phones. It excludes small niche programs designed for specific types of business people from existing – a problem that is rectified on Android. Android’s applications are open to all software developers, which means more innovation for the business user.
Strong web browsing capabilities: Android supports Adobe Flash – a popular way of encoding web pages that the Apple iPhone does not support. In other words, Android users are able to view a number of web pages that iPhone users would not otherwise be able to. This is important when you need one quick piece of information on the go!
Prices are much more competitive: Because Android is available on many different types of phone, there’s much more room for the budget-minded businessperson to find a price that works for them.
Strong Exchange integration: Many businesses use Microsoft Exchange, though mobile support for Exchange is sometimes hit and miss. BlackBerry requires of the installation of their BES server. However, Android integrates with Exchange without any need for add-ons – perfect for easy integration into the business world!