Silent Circle offers Android for Work-ready Blackphone

Silent Circle has announced its newest privacy-focused mobile device, the Blackphone 2, will support Google's Android for Work platform, a major step in its targeted growth into the enterprise space.

Blackphone 2 (Source: Silent Circle)

Silent Circle, a company set up by former US security and cryptology experts and headquartered in Switzerland, specialises in highly secure, privacy-focused devices.

The Google partnership means Blackphone 2 users will be able to partition their work activities from their personal activities on the device, with enterprises able to manage the professional side of the Blackphone use.

The Blackphone 2 already runs on a forked version of the Android operating system called SilentOS, which communicates exclusively via encrypted peer-to-peer data links for voice and video calls, and does not store digital keys. 

The company has also set up a privacy-oriented 'Silent Store' for apps, and is offering the 'Silent Manager' for mobile device management in organisations. 

Blackphone 2 was launched in March this year, and features a 1920 x1080 pixel screen measuring 5.5 inches diagonally, and comes with a 1.7 GHz, 64-bit eight-core processor and three gigabytes of RAM, 32GB of storage and a 13 megapixel rear camera.

It will be available in September this year and is expected to sell for around A$800.

The Blackphone is one of two devices recommended by Google for companies and organisations that require "elevated security and uncompromising privacy".

The other is Samsung's latest Galaxy S6, which features government certified software and hardware enhancements such as KNOX work/personal data partitioning backed by enhanced hardware-based ARM Trustzone Integrity Management Architecture (TIMA), as well as trusted and secure boot features.

Google boasted its Android for Work program has now partnered with 40 companies, including large device makers HP, Dell, Lenovo, HTC, Sony, LGE, Samsung, Huawei and Motorola, plus several large north American carriers.