semyendow: Citrix Brings GoToMeeting App to Android

Thursday, 8 September 2011

Citrix Brings GoToMeeting App to Android

Cloud and virtualization company Citrix is releasing its popular GoToMeeting application for Android devices. Citrix cites stats from The Telework Coalition that 58% of companies consider themselves a virtual workplace while 67% of all workers use mobile and wireless computing devices. Combined with the fact that Android controls more than 40% of current smartphone market share, GoToMeeting is long overdue for a release on Google's mobile operating system.

GoToMeeting is going to be preloaded onto Motorola's newest Android device, the Droid BIONIC, starting Sept. 8. The iOS version of GoToMeeting has been downloaded nearly 250,000 times. Motorola will also be pre-loading the Citrix Receiver that allows employees to access corporate Windows apps and documents from anywhere.

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"Device manufacturers have invested a good deal of time and resources to make their Android devices more enterprise friendly. Shipments of Android devices around the world have increased at astounding volumes each quarter and enterprises recognize the productivity benefits from providing the right tools to a growing mobile workforce. IDC believes that vendors will ship a total of 178.9 million Android-powered smartphones by the end of 2011 and reach 420.0 million units by 2015," said Stephen Drake, program VP, IDC's Mobility and Telecom Research in a press release.

The GoToMeeting Android app will be free from the Android Market. Here are the features that GoToMeeting brings to Android:

Quick session entry: Click a meeting invitation from your email, enter your meeting ID and you are in.

VoiP integrated audio: Use the phones built-in mic and speakers over WiFi for conversation over an IP connection.

Audio controls: The ability to mute yourself if you are in a noisy area.

Zoom in on content: Pinch to zoom to see content up to 200%.

Portrait or landscape: Taking advantage of the accelerometer.

See who is attending: List of all meeting attendees.

The Citrix Receiver and GoToMeeting for Android are a significant step for the operating system to gain traction in the enterprise. Android is following a similar development cycle that Apple did with iOS, which took several years to have the apps, security and functionality that has made it a popular device among corporations.

On the flip side, anything that Android does in the enterprise space is probably bad for Research In Motion. Google could also have a significant feather in its hat with its Motorola purchase as that likely includes Android security startup 3LM (Three Laws of Mobility) that is one of several companies building BlackBerry Enterprise Server-like functionality for Android.

Android proliferation coupled with enhanced security, BlackBerry's declining market share and excellent apps for functionality such as GoToMeeting could spell trouble for RIM. We will see how the trend plays out in the near future and if Android can fully gain a foothold in corporations.

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