There is more than one way to get Android apps on your device but Google’s Play Store is the prime source for those apps. With BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) finding its way into more organizations and the undeniable usefulness of portable devices has many organizations turning to develop their own apps for the Android platform. However, the organization is probably reluctant to publish the app for the whole world to acquire but might like the benefits of being able to publish their apps through the Google Play store, keep the app up to date, and provide the app no matter where the devices are in the world.
To load an internal app to their channel, a company uses the Google Play Developer Console. Employees can then login with their company email address to browse the channel and download apps. An organization will have to use Google Apps, which supports Active Directory integration now, in order to take advantage of the internal channel and will have to pay the $25 publisher registration fee. Google Apps administrators grant users access to the private channel. Once a user has access, they can find the internal apps under Apps > [Organization name] inside the Play Store.
For more information on Google Play Private Channels for Google Apps, view Google’s help page on the topic.
(via Google Enterprise Blog)