Samsung Introduces KNOX Marketplace, An Enterprise App Store Powered By AppDirect

Samsung is making a big push with its enterprise market appeal today, thanks to the introduction of the new Samsung KNOX Marketplace. This is a special mobile-focused digital software storefront that offers up business apps, IT provisioning and tools for tech managers working within large organizations. Samsung and partner AppDirect, which powers the marketplace, are aiming to give companies fielding BYOD trends a way to keep their data secure.

KNOX allows users to keep their work apps and personal apps separate from one another, with differentiated access to try to minimize the security risks associated with using your home device at work. The KNOX marketplace gives enterprises a new, equally distinct way to control which of those apps are made available for downloading and use in a business setting. It allows corporate IT managers to search for and buy KNOX apps and other software targeted specifically at business mobiles, and buy entire preconfigured product bundles at once.

Samsung KNOX_search[1]Managing provisioned apps is handheld through a dashboard aimed at offering ease of use for managers, and this can be configured to control apps on every single KNOX-enabled mobile device deployed throughout an organization. AppDirect is a white-label cloud service marketplace provider, which has worked with a number of partners including T-Mobile, Comcast, Appcelerator and more. The company raised a $9M Series B round in September last year, and acquired an app packaging company that likely helped in part pave the way for this offering with Samsung.

Samsung gets a nice carrot for its potential enterprise customers out of the bargain, which is key as the company continues to mature its business offerings in an effort to win more BYOD share from Apple, and supplant the flagging BlackBerry as the go-to platform of choice for companies looking for mobile solutions. Samsung has already discussed its plans to target enterprise mobility services in a big way going forward, and the company sees this as an opportunity to work through flattening interest in its consumer smartphone offerings.