Glossary

Dedicated device

A dedicated device is an Android Enterprise mode for company-owned hardware locked to a single purpose: a scanner, a point-of-sale terminal, a check-in tablet or a digital sign. The MDM owns the whole device, the user sees only the apps you allow, and nothing else is reachable. Google used to call it COSU, corporate-owned single-use.

How it works

Under the hood, a dedicated device is a fully managed device with a lockdown layer on top. It's provisioned the same way, at first boot, by QR code, afw# identifier or zero-touch, and the MDM becomes device owner. What changes is what happens after enrollment: the MDM sets one or several apps as the allowed launcher and pins the device into Android's lock task mode.

In lock task mode, the home and recent buttons do what you decide, notifications can be hidden, the status bar can vanish, and the user can't open Settings or the Play Store. Google shipped this in Android 5.0 and refined it through Android 9, which added fine control over which system UI elements stay visible. Since then the mechanism has been stable, which is why kiosk vendors rely on it.

Dedicated devices are often shared. A warehouse has 40 scanners and 120 pickers across three shifts, so Android offers ephemeral users and, since Android 11, shared device sign-in through the MDM: the picker logs in, works, logs out, and the next person gets a clean session.

Why it matters for a fleet

A terminal that can only run one app has fewer failure modes. Nobody installs a game on the scanner, nobody changes the Wi-Fi, nobody updates the app to a version your backend doesn't support. Support tickets drop, and the device does the same thing on Monday as it did on Friday.

It's also a security stance. A kiosk in a public lobby is a device anyone can touch. Locking it down means the worst someone can do is reboot it, and Factory Reset Protection plus a blocked recovery keep it from being wiped and resold.

One caveat: dedicated mode needs the app itself to behave. An app that crashes leaves the user staring at a black screen unless the MDM relaunches it, so test the lockdown on real hardware, especially rugged terminals from Zebra or Honeywell where scanner settings come through OEMConfig.

How Appaloosa handles it

Appaloosa provisions dedicated devices through Android Enterprise, then applies its kiosk mode: single-app or multi-app lockdown, hidden system UI, automatic relaunch, plus OEMConfig profiles for Samsung Knox, Zebra and Honeywell hardware. Apps come from Managed Google Play or your private APKs, and remote wipe is one click away. The full setup is on the Android MDM page.

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Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between a dedicated device and kiosk mode?

Dedicated device is the Android Enterprise ownership and enrollment mode; kiosk mode is the lockdown you apply on top of it. You can have a dedicated device with a multi-app launcher, and you can't have true kiosk mode on Android without a dedicated or fully managed enrollment behind it.

Can users still receive calls or notifications on a dedicated device?

Only if you allow it. Lock task mode lets the admin decide whether notifications, the status bar and the phone app are reachable. A delivery scanner might keep calls enabled while a lobby tablet blocks everything except the check-in app.

How do I update the app on 300 dedicated devices without visiting each one?

Through Managed Google Play or a private APK pushed by the MDM. Set a maintenance window so the update installs outside shift hours, and roll it out to a small group first. The device stays in lockdown throughout, so users never see the Play Store.