Android on the Desktop

24/04/13 14:06 Filed in: Systems Administation | Management
Currently I am speccing a call centre and one of our key requirements is to reduce our software administration and maintenance overheads. We are currently trialling Android STBs as terminals for the agents. Our hope is that their browser is sufficient to work with our bespoke web site and we will not have to do any major maintenance on the boxes as they are locked down to just the browsing app.
We needed two applications from the Google Play Store to achieve lockdown and correct operation:
  • APP Lock - to keep users out of things other than the browser
  • Null Input Method - to allow a standard USB keyboard to work without popping up the soft keyboard all the time
So far so good with the:
  • Rikomagic MK 802IIIS
  • ASTONE A108
At a cost of approximately $100 per seat they easily beat pricing on low end PCs reducing upfront costs nicely. Of course they do a lot less than a PC, but for a targeted web based application they look to be better than sufficient.