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androidiosmobilemdm

Accessing/Upgrading/Clearing Mobile Devices: MDM

We are building an enterprise focused mobile application.

To take this app to the market we need to figure out how to remotely a) upgrade / wipe the application on mobile devices b) get access to the device for support and troubleshooting

I guess mobile device management (MDM) applications like AirWatch or MobiControl can do this job. But they are expensive and do a lot of other things which we are not interested in.

Is there anything else in the market that is especially geared for mobile application developers to add the above features within their application?

*Addition: We are working on iOS and Android for now.

Solution

  • iOS

    Install/Upgrade

    On iOS you can use MDM API to install and upgrade apps. However, there are multiple gotchas

    • A user has to accept it
    • If the same app is preinstalled by user, you won't be able to install it/upgrade it through MDM

    Wipe

    You can wipe only whole device or you can remove an application which will remove it's data. However, you can remove only apps which was installed through MDM

    Get access to the device for support and troubleshooting

    If you are talking about remote desktop like capabilities then you are out of luck. You can't remotely control it. However, you may be interested to look at airplay mirroring.

    Android

    Install/Upgrade

    Look at this: Android: install .apk programmatically Install Application programmatically on Android

    Wipe

    You can use device admin capabilities for this: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/admin/device-admin.html

    Get access to the device for support and troubleshooting

    I am not sure.

    Obvious self-marketing :)

    Can you contact me by email (I have it in my profile). My company does a lot of things which you are interested it. May be we can find interesting opportunity for a cooperation.