Android 4.3 launches - multi-user restricted profiles provide incentive for enterprise

Wi-Fi performance and graphical processing boosts also arrive in latest Jelly Bean

Android 4.3 - Google's latest version of its mobile operating system - arrived on Friday, with a few nips and tucks that could prove of particular interest to enterprise users.

Though it's just a very basic upgrade to Android's Jelly Bean build - last version being 4.2.2 - the new build offers restricted user options for its multiple profiles feature.

The addition - which apes the functionality of Windows by allowing a master profile to administer rights limited profiles for other users - can be seen as Google capitalising on an enterprise strength of the Android ecosystem which iOS is still without.

While Apple's mobile OS is now on its seventh version, iOS still has no multiple user function at all, let alone restricted profile options.

Options to administer on restricted profiles include removed access to certain apps, and edited content such as monetisation and microtransaction options within app environments.

Another potentially useful addition to Android 4.3 is Bluetooth Smart compatibility, which is arguably overdue. Allowing connection to more power-efficient Bluetooth devices – something that iOS has been able to do since early 2012 – the feature's appearance in Android was expected, but welcome nonetheless.

Meanwhile, minor battery life extensions are attempted by adding "scan-only" mode to Wi-Fi functionality, meaning Google location service and apps which scan networks can still function even when core Wi-Fi use is turned off. The result is that Android can still offer location accuracy or minor data updates without the continuous drain of a full Wi-Fi connection.

Other additions include emoticons for the stock touch keyboard, improvement in 3D graphics output via Open GL ES 3.0 - arguably more of interest to games developers than anybody else - and autocomplete for the phone dialler.

Android 4.3 is hardly a milestone in the Google OS's history, but the restricted profile functionality does help Jelly Bean draw even further away from an Apple offering that - while still convenient - retains a flat refusal to embrace enterprise users in terms of features lurking under the hood.

While the upcoming Apple iOS 7 - the fourth beta of which is released today - may rectify this in time, Google's release of Android 5.0 - thought to be named "Keylime Pie" - will also be waiting somewhere in the wings, as the crusade for mobile dominance between the big two rages on.