Aquarius CMP NS M-series Handheld PCs (PDAs)

The main articles are:

• Smartphones (Global Market)
• Smartphones (Russian market)

2024: Compatibility with Red OS M

Red Soft, together with the Aquarius group of companies, on April 17, 2024 announced the end of testing and confirm the compatibility of the domestic Red OS M operating system with Aquarius NS M11 and Aquarius NS M12 smartphones. In More here [1]

2023: Launch of serial production of Aquarius NS M11 PDA based on Aurora OS

Serial production of the Aquarius PDA in a form factor smartphone under control Russian OS "Aurora" started at the company's production sites "Aquarius" in and. Tver This was announced To Shuya on March 13, 2023 TAdviser by representatives of Aquarius.

Mass production of smartphones on the domestic Aurora OS has started in Russia
Ha photo: Aquarius NS M11 based on the Aurora OS

According to their estimates, by the end of 2023, the company's production capacity will allow the production of up to 2.5 million devices, including the Aquarius NS M11 PDA and the Aquarius NS M12 protected PDA. In turn, this will give Aquarius the opportunity to fulfill orders from large companies and organizations that are switching to the Aurora trusted corporate platform - first of all, to supply devices for critical information infrastructure facilities, power facilities, emergency services, and the Ministry of Emergencies.

"The start of serial production of various versions of the execution of domestic mobile devices with the Aurora OS preinstalled at the Aquarius production base marks a new stage in meeting the growing demand of Russian companies and authorities for trusted domestic solutions and achieving technological sovereignty of Russia," said Pavel Eiges, CEO of Open Mobile Platform.

As of mid-March 2023, the Aquarius NS M11 PDA in the smartphone form factor is leaving the manufacturer's assembly line. In the near future, Aquarius NS M12 will also enter mass production - IP68-protected PDAs with Aurora OS for corporate use in the field.

"The Aquarius NS M11 PDA with the Russian Aurora mobile OS is a safe device for corporate needs. It is suitable for trusted document management, has a familiar set of applications for the user and helps corporate employees access the data necessary for work, - said Vladimir Stepanov, President of the Aquarius Group of Companies. - Also in the second quarter of 2023, mass production of the Aquarius NS M12 protected PDA with Aurora OS will be launched. Thus, we will already have two devices in the smartphone form factor, which will be available from the Russian mobile OS Aurora.

2022: Kaspersky Lab withdrew from a project to create a smartphone for the military

In July 2022, Kaspersky Lab announced the withdrawal from a joint project with Aquarius to create a secure smartphone for the military. We are talking about the Aquarius NS M11 smartphone, which was positioned as a device focused mainly on the military and special services.

We do not cooperate with the Aquarius group, - Viktor Ivanovsky, head of the business development group in the KasperskyOS division, told Vedomosti.

Kaspersky Lab has withdrawn from the project to create the Aquarius NS M11 smartphone

According to him, the development and use of the operating network in Kaspersky Lab is developing within the framework of a research project "on professional mobile devices." The priority target segment for its possible application is the corporate and industrial business segments, Ivanovsky added.

The smartphone was supposed to run on several operating systems. Including the company introduced the Aquarius NS M11 model on the KasperskyOS operating system from Kaspersky Lab. Such a device should "provide secure access to the information systems of the enterprise, support the operation of electronic document management using an electronic signature and serve as a runtime for application applications that help solve the work tasks of employees of companies and institutions."

In "Aquarius" they said that in the smartphone Aquarius NS M11 is involved processor in the ARM architecture. According to the source of the publication, KasperskyOS it does not work on devices with ARM processors. Kaspersky Lab operating system ARM did not comment on the company's compatibility with devices on -processors.

"Aquarius" is also a smartphone on another domestic OS - "," Aurora which is being developed today, Rostelecom"" as well as a version on OS Android 9.0.^[1]

2021: Release of Aquarius CMP NS M11

On December 2, 2021, Aquarius announced the release of the first pocket personal computer, which is fully designed and manufactured in Russia. The device was developed using the most up-to-date element base and taking into account information security requirements, which allows it to become a reliable device for the needs of corporate clients and employees of state organizations, including at critical information infrastructure (CII) facilities. This is a continuation of the company's work on devices for the corporate mobility market, where the company already has laptops and tablets.

"Aquarius" presented a smartphone on the OS "Kaspersky Lab"

The PDA model is ready for release - Aquarius CMP NS M11. The first production batch consists of 200 devices. By the end of 2021, it is planned to release another batch of 3,000 PDAs. The second model is being prepared for mass production - Aquarius CMP NS M12 with dust and moisture protection (IP-68). Explosion-proof design is being developed for industrial enterprises with special operating conditions.

According to Kommersant, citing a source familiar with the details of the projects, Aquarius expects high demand for its smartphone and associates its expectations with increased control over the use of personal gadgets by intelligence officers. The situation was provoked by stories that a number of employees conducted official correspondence from personal devices, which later got into the network, the source said.

Kaspersky Lab noted that the KasperskyOS operating system is aimed at industries with high cybersecurity requirements, such as industry, power, government agencies or transport. Mobile Research Group analyst Eldar Murtazin believes that KasperskyOS cannot be called a full-fledged system for the consumer market, since it was originally created for the Internet of Things.

According to the expert, KasperskyOS is much simpler than, for example, Aurora (developed by Rostelecom), but the Kaspersky Lab platform is better protected: "The fewer functions in the system, the fewer vulnerabilities." According to the analyst, it is really logical to create a gadget on such a system with the expectation of the needs of government agencies or the defense complex.

Device security is a comprehensive requirement that includes both trusted OS boot mechanisms and data integrity software and privacy control functions, the head of advanced research and special projects notes. Astra Linux GC Roman Mylitsyn

According to Eldar Murtazin, in the consumer segment one should not expect a noticeable demand for devices with a high level of protection. They are "originally created to solve certain problems" and will never have such wide functionality as ordinary retail smartphones.^[2]

The volume of investments in the development of the PDA line is more than 1 billion rubles.

Aquarius CMP NS M11 is the first pocket personal computer in the form factor of a smartphone, released by Aquarius. The device was developed by a specialized design center - TP LABS, created by Aquarius for the development of various mobile devices. PDA is a full-fledged computing device that is assembled in Russia at the company's production complex in the city of ShuyaIvanovo region.

The Aquarius CMP NS M11 PDA is designed with an element base tailored to meet the requirements of secure devices handling sensitive information and personal data. Thus, the domestic CCP reliably protects personal and corporate data and is suitable for use by employees of organizations, including employees of critical information infrastructure facilities, emergency workers, firefighters and the Ministry of Emergencies.

Corporate mobility helps employees access the data they need to work, stay connected wherever they are. But the more mobile devices are involved in business processes, the more data on them, the loss of which can damage the interests of the company. Accordingly, each such device becomes a significant asset that must be protected and protected. The implementation of Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solutions can be called a strategic inevitability. The Russian market for EMM solutions is actively developing. Aquarius interacts with operating systems developers to ensure mutual compatibility of equipment and software, which will allow the most complete implementation of the functionality inherent in the products.

A significant example of the successful implementation and operation of the EMM system was the solution for. All-Russian population census 260,000 Aquarius tablets run under the domestic operating system Aurora"." We are confident that our product will be in demand state among large enterprise customers, for whom security and data loss are critical, "said Alexander Kalinin, chief designer of the Aquarius group.

For quick operation, the device is equipped with a powerful 8-core processor ARM and has a set of wired and wireless interfaces that allow you to connect various peripheral devices and provide access to the necessary data. The Aquarius CMP NS M11 has a 6.67 'multi-touch screen accumulator and 5,000mAh capacity.

The catalyst for the development of the corporate mobility market in the last year has become a pandemic. The massive transfer of employees to remote work led to the need to include personal devices in the corporate environment of enterprises. Heads of IT services of corporate customers sounded the alarm and began to talk about the need to move from corporate mobility according to the BYOD model to the COBO model. And this has become the driver of our developments. We position the PDA as a device for access through applications to enterprise services in secure mode. One of its elements is communication channels that are protected by special software using modern technologies to protect the data transfer environment, "said Vladimir Stepanov, President of Aquarius.

Pocket PC "Aquarius" runs on several operating systems. On domestic: mobile OS "Aurora" version 4.x and mobile. operating system KasperskyOS It can also be used specially adapted to the requirements of corporate security OS Android version 9.0. The company plans to expand its product lines for corporate mobility. It is expected that these will be PDAs, tablets and laptops with various degrees of protection (shock-proof, dust and moisture-proof according to the IP-68 standard, explosion-proof devices).

The release of its own line of such devices will allow Aquarius to meet all possible needs of the Russian market in the segment of client devices developed and assembled in Russia on a domestic element base, with a high degree of corporate data protection, which is becoming more in demand than ever. This is one of the key qualities of the Aquarius company not only in front of Western, but also domestic competitors.

Notes