Google recently came out with three all new Android devices, all called Nexus– 4, 7, and 10. I’m not as interested in the 7 and 10 as I am the 4, primarily because it’s the only phone in the new line up.
When I first learned about the new version of Android, 4.2 (although without a new codename–it’s still called Jelly Bean), I was excited about one new feature Google was adding: multiuser support. While I’m not all that interested in sharing my phone with someone else–it’s much to personal of a device for that–multiuser functionality would be useful for “siloing” personal and business data on a single phone.
I’m not 100% certain why Google decided to keep this off phones, and only on tablets. Apparently, it may be because of a patent that Nokia has on multiuser operating systems on phones (although perhaps not–apparently the patent application was abandoned). Rather, I suspect it’s got something to do with phones being more “personal” devices than tablets. I believe Google thinks that people are more likely to share tablets than they would their phones, which I agree with. However, I think this is a pretty typical move for Google– with many of their devices and services, they add restrictions that sound reasonable for perhaps the majority of their users, but wind up being detrimental to at least some. I would love to be able to keep personal and business data as separate on my phone as possible, going so far as having separate contact lists and even calendars (although I’m sure the latter would be problematic).
Unfortunately, Uncle Google believes he knows better. To me this is similar to Nexus devices not having microSD slots– Google believes they add too much complexity and confusion. To me it simply prevents me from having all 35GB of my music on my 16GB phone.
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