Google announced new features for Android specifically aimed at improving the usage in companies. The next version of Android-L Android 5 will contain these improvements.
When employees access corporate data with the smartphone, you want a strict separation of corporate data from private data and a foreclosure of privately used services. Even if you trust your employees, you don’t want to risk that privately installed apps access your corporate data secretly
Update: Android L is now called Android 5 Lollipop. (21 Oct. 2014)
In Android L there will be specific user profiles. The profiles will get their own encrypted storage area. Each app sees only the data in the associated user profile.
Some further improvements in Android L do not have direct effects, but they allow better third-party device management solutions. There are now more specific APIs to access system settings.
Sample Benefits
The employees of a company can access corporate data during business travel or they can use special corporate apps. The security level is now higher: If the smartphone is lost, the thief can not simply read out the business data via USB. If the traveller wants to share his photos with the family and installs an incredibly practical synchronization app for the newest dropbox clone, the system prevents that corporate data get published in the cloud.
The new extensions help to make Android safer and easier manageable in the enterprise. But Google and other service providers with their critical data gathering services are still only a swiping gesture away. Therefore, for many scenarios Android L is not enough and a customized version of Android still remains the better option.