Samsung is attempting to add a high level of security to its (Android) devices to protect businesses, seeing a market that they can steal from BlackBerry (a company on borrowed time). Others are also doing, or about to do, the same as the business market must be a profitable route given how saturated the consumer market is becoming.
I think Microsoft also has various security elements coming in Windows Phone to try and make it more appealing to business users, but given there's no backward compatibility there's no need for any developer to remain loyal to Microsoft.
Apple has also claimed to offer security for enterprise users, although I suspect that issuing iPhones would be a rather expensive process and perhaps somewhat over the top.
I am not sure where things stand now, but long after Windows Phone had launched to consumers, there were still many companies building Windows Mobile (6) devices for industry. It's still probably considered a perfectly good OS and quite tried and tested. Restricting access to the Start menu or any other apps is a good thing, as it would then introduce all sorts of problems as staff accidentally mess the thing up!
All that's probably required is a newer device that has a higher resolution screen, a better chipset that would be both faster but also more energy efficient, thus increasing battery life. You'd also expect a capacitive touchscreen to make selecting things easier, and if it was, say, a Samsung made device it might even have S-Pen support to allow people to still electronically sign things.
As such, RPIs could be given these devices to electronically capture data that might be used for prosecutions, with the passenger able to sign as they would a notebook today. Obviously the software would then ensure the file was saved and encrypted with no way to make subsequent edits later.
Perhaps that's going a bit too far, but I am sure it will happen one day. You might even have the system capturing interviews and converting speech to text in real time to make things even quicker (while saving the audio of the conversation simultaneously).
Oh, and the next gen kit would have its own connectivity to get real time updates and send back data without having to be docked. This would then make it easier to validate e/m-tickets.
), so went firmly and nicely in my top shirt pocket. First class service from an Arriva guard who clearly has pride in his job.
