Samsung Announces Galaxy S4 Launch and ‘Knox’ BYOD Security System

Samsung Announces Galaxy S4 Launch and ‘Knox’ BYOD Security System

If you’re contemplating Samsung’s enormously successful Galaxy S3 (which sold 40 million devices in January this year), you may want to wait for Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S4.

While the rumours have not revealed much in the way of specs for the phone, ARN and ExtremeTech states it is expected to feature an 8 core Exynos 5 processor, a 4.99inch super AMOLED full HD display with 1920×1080 screen resolution as well as a 13 megapixel rear-facing camera. Wireless charging is expected to make an appearance, as well as up to 64GB of flash storage, and 2GB of RAM.

Samsung has announced that the launch will occur in a New York event on March 14.

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Fort ‘Knox’

Though the Samsung Galaxy S4 will most likely be a hit if the success of its predecessor is any indication, the more interesting announcement for Enterprise users, is Samsung’s ‘Knox’ initiative.

Samsung have responded to the increasing trend of BYOD and concerns over the security of Android devices for Enterprise use, by improving their existing Samsung For Enterprise (or SAFE) platform. Knox (named after the famous Fort Knox in Kentucky, where much of the U.S. gold reserves are stored), was announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday.

Simon Stanford, vice president of IM division at Samsung Electronics UK & Ireland said in a statement:

Knox bears similarities to BlackBerry’s Balance system, which allows IT admins to separate employee’s personal and work data. This is made possible by incorporating Security Enhanced (SE) Android and encryption at the file system level to reduce the chance of data leakage, viruses and malware attacks on corporate mobile devices.

“Easily accessible via an icon on the home screen, the Knox container presents a variety of enterprise applications in a secure environment including email, browser, contacts, calendars, file sharing, collaboration, CRM and business intelligence applications” Samsung said in a statement about their new Enterprise grade security system.

This will potentially give Samsung a leg up in the Enterprise market, by tackling head on the doubt surrounding the suitability of Android devices in the Enterprise, whils also providing a viable option for Enterprise IT reluctant to implement Blackberry or Windows mobile devices.

Knox is expected to be available on “selected” Galaxy phones by the second quarter of this year and according to CNET, Samsung is considering embedding Knox into the Galaxy S4.