Why Tablets Haven't Taken Off In Business 449
An anonymous reader writes "On PC World's blog, Keir Thomas suggests reasons why tablets have never taken off in business, and explains how Apple's iPad was able to waltz in and steal the entire market. It's all about giving users freedom to figure out how useful tablets can be, he says, rather than forcing them into narrow usage scenarios: 'There's a lot to be said for having faith in users to make best use of their computer, without pushing and pulling them in ways you think are best for them.'"
does not compute (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
So that's why the first tablet that doesn't let you do everything a laptop would succeeded?
More like it succeeded because it was the first tablet that wasn't just a laptop with the keyboard hacked off.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't carry a full PC tower around with a display, a keyboard and a mouse. You buy a laptop.
You don't walk around with a laptop in your arms while trying to use it, you buy a tablet computer.
There's also the fact that Apple didn't try to force the desktop UI interface into the iPad, they used one that was designed as a touch interface from day one.
Re:does not compute (Score:4, Interesting)
you don't walk around with a tablet computer, you walk around with a phone that can do it.
Re: (Score:2)
By walking around I meant people working in warehouses, offices, etc, not carry-in-your-pocket uses.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
Spoken by somebody with young eyes and fingers. Get to a certain point in life and 'just the bigger screen' is not a phrase that makes sense.
Re:does not compute (Score:4, Insightful)
Spoken by a fucking moron.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
The ignorance of the youth is strong in this one.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Funny)
Wow. Just... Wow. If a prerequisite to being old and wise is to first be young and stupid, you are destined to become Methuselah.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Funny)
Must be from all the American semen pumped into your great grandmother during WWI.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Technically, your lens loses flexibility, but yah that's about right.
The only good thing about that is that it eliminates one source of problems when watching 3D movies, young people expect to be able to focus on things close to them, and when they can't refocus on things coming out of the screen it is disturbing. Doesn't bother the over-40 crowd a bit.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Because my crippled old bones cannot take the abuse from the desktop replacement laptops. In addition, my bloodflow is so poor from years of binging on Doritos that it cannot carry away the heat put off by these computing devices.
Christ, does anybody on Slashdot understand that there are use cases other than their own and that what suits them may not suit another person?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Christ, does anybody on Slashdot understand that there are use cases other than their own and that what suits them may not suit another person?
Lack of empathy is a pre-requisite for Slashdot commenting.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
Use one for awhile, then post.
When you say, "I can't fathom" or "I can't understand," what you're really saying is "My mental model of reality is flawed in a way that brings it into conflict with what I see and hear around me." You can't fix this condition by complaining incredulously about it on Slashdot. You need to use an iPad for a few hours and see what you think after that.
I don't even own or want one of their locked-down shiny objects, but I've used the iPad enough to understand why it's a good fit for the wants and needs of a lot of other people.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, they're called "hipsters", we get it.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Informative)
That's my mother - who, after years of trying every single computerized gizmo that my brother and gave her (and failing rather dramatically) has fallen in love with her iPad. As have her neighbors at her Assisted Living place. We gave her the iPad a couple of months ago - I just visited the place and now there are perhaps a dozen of the things crawling around the place. The old folks are browsing the web, playing Mah jong, doing email and all those other fancy things (the home has a nice wireless setup). They're perfect for people that can't handle a 'real' computer and don't want / need a smartphone. The bigger screen is a big deal for some folks.
There are more things in heaven and earth, jhigh, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. The fact that Apple has sold millions of these things indicates that they know a teensy bit more about the market than you (or the rest of your rather narrow minded ilk) do.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple succeeded because of marketing, not because of superiority of their product
Keep telling yourself that. It's a harmless-enough delusion compared to many others you could have chosen.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
What can you do with an iPad that I can't do with linux on any other tablet from 5 years ago?
A normal everyday person can use the iPad. A slashdot reading geek is required for "linux on any other tablet from 5 years ago".
Once you get that through your thick nerd skull, you too will grok the enlightenment.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Linux seems to finally have video to an acceptable level
Not even that. Just a couple months ago, I spent two days trying to get Ubuntu 10.04 to run at the native resolution of my bog standard 19" monitor, and finally concluded that it's either not possible, or so obscure that I'll never figure it out. Not doing anything fancy or unusual here, just trying to use an LCD that was lying around the office on the cheap on-board video card this machine came with. At this point, Linux on the server is great, but I've pretty much given up on Linux as a client OS. Eve
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
What can you do with an iPad that I can't do with linux on any other tablet from 5 years ago?
Not beat my head against the wall trying to find a $IMPORTANT_FUNCTIONALITY driver that actually works, not have to spend any time learning a UI, and play Angry Birds.
Seriously, if that doesn't sum it up for you you're either being disingenuous, or you're forever going to just not get it. The latter is fine, but you should really quit torturing yourself by trying to grock it.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
You should really look at yourself in the mirror. You're clearly holding the exact position you accuse me of holding, in reverse. But hey, I'll play along and clarify.
What can one do with an iPad that I can't do with an alternative?
1) Pull it out of the box, and within 1 minute have almost any book on my screen and read it for 10 hours straight without a charge. On the living room couch.
2) Setup an Apple ID, and then have any of hundreds of thousands of pieces of software on my device in one click, usually for only a couple dollars or less.
3) Let my 2 year old daughter use it with no supervision, and her actually be able to open her apps and navigate with no issues.
4) Give it to my father to browse the Internet or play with apps, and not have to tell him how to use it. And he won't break it.
5) Spend 0 time setting up or maintaining it. It really just works.
6) Have access to an enormous amount of software designed specifically for a touch screen, much of it extremely high quality.
I could keep going, but i think i've made my point. I enjoy using it.
Re:does not compute (Score:4, Informative)
What can you[1] do with an iPad that I can't do with linux on any other tablet from 5 years ago?
Do you really want an exhaustive list of hardware and platform differences? Let's see, anything 3G or GPS navigation related, run keynote presentations, in fact run any other commercial software to speak of, 15 hour battery life, 1 month sleep/standby, type on an onscreen keyboard, fit in an envelope, play angry birds or pvz, you you can't use it as a leveling tool due to lack of accelerometers, you can't buy and download music directly, etc etc. Clearly you're not dumb enough to ask for a list of differences, you just expect to retort that none of these are important, or only stupid people want them, or you can add external hardware to the tablet, or you shouldn't leave home without a charger or extra batteries, etc etc. But clearly enough people care about these things to pay for it, while merely having the ability to point at a screen by itself, in a fairly bulky package with poor performance and battery life, is not marketable in itself. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a tradeoff. Classic PDAs go too far towards the simple, laptops don't go far enough.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, you and much of the Slashdot crowd don't really understand marketing. It seems that 'marketing' is equated with 'advertising'. Not in the least. Apple is actually a very good at marketing, but not in the limited way some seem to understand it. Apple didn't 'create' the market for the iPad, they discovered it. Big difference. Once found, they created a product that would appeal to that market. Not as simple as a PDA, not as unwieldy and complex as a laptop. Then they told people about it.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
Bwahahahaha! You're trolling, right? I'm a huge believer in open source software as a political movement, and as a basis for a free society, but are you *seriously* proposing that it's easier to use than the App Store? *Seriously*? Have you ever *used* the App Store?
I'd *love* to see a Linux distro that's as easy to use as the iPad. Let's fork Qt and build one!
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Ease of Use and Cost of Use are not the same thing. There are two sides to the price/performance tradeoff. Apple wins over Ubuntu here because the prices on the App Store are generally not unreasonable, and what you get for your money is much nicer than what you get for free from Ubuntu.
Using software with bad UIs costs time, and time is money. Would you rather pay $10 and save 100 hours of wasted time over the course of a year, or save the $10? If your time is free, you'll save the $10. If it's w
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Well, are you a business, which is what this article is about?
Anyway, do you have a job that requires you to walk around while also having access to a lot of information at the same time?
I happen to have both an iPhone and an iPad, and for non-trivial things, the iPad kills the iPhone. Being able to see more items in a list, easier typing [course, I'm 6'5"], WAY longer battery life would be things that people actually using the device for work might actually want.
I'm sure Fortune 100 companies rolling out
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, do you have a job that requires you to walk around while also having access to a lot of information at the same time?
I would probably have paid twice what my iPad cost if you had shown me what it could do as a VNC client. Even if it couldn't surf the web or play pinball or read e-books, it's still worthwhile as a VNC controller. Much easier to use at a crowded workbench than a laptop.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
well that, and in 8 yers MSFT developed ONE and only ONE tablet application.
Every other application required a keyboard to be really useful. MSFT never ported things like office or outlook to a tablet interface. Apple redesigned their mail, web browser, etc applications. MSFT designed one Note and left it at that.
Where was the outlook for tablet interfaces? how about excel? The problem with tablets before apple, wasn't processor or battery, but the fact that if you weren't using a keyboard or mouse the interface was a royal pain in the ass to use.
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:does not compute (Score:4, Insightful)
The truth about why that happened is even sillier. The head of the Office team didn't believe in tablets... http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/feb/04/microsoft-exec-tablet-killed-brass-office [guardian.co.uk]
Re:does not compute (Score:4, Insightful)
I was more confused by the attempted assocation between Apple and freedom.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Since I get most of my tech news and discussions here at /. myself, I also have weird times with hearing things like that. Thing is, they are actually pretty free for a company that has a larger market cap than MS. They contribute a lot to open source. They produce a lot of open source programming. One of my friends went to a tech seminar on phone apps. The presenter started out by talking about how Apple opened up the phone app mark
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
It doesn't have Windows. Since it doesn't have Windows, it can use a lightweight ARM processor. Since it uses an ARM processor and flash memory, it doesn't need a huge thick battery. Since it uses a lightweight touch-centric OS that's not Windows on ARM it's so naturally intuitive that small children can use it, and adults want to. Because it doesn't need ridiculously expensive engineered hardware tricks to work at all, it can be priced reasonably. Because these technologies came online just prior to l
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
And its ability to do lots of sophisticated work, today, isn't very good.
Worse, there are no anti-malware/virus pieces (yeah, probably unnecessary but probably required anyway).
There are no fleet management components or APIs.
There are no policy controls to prevent data theft of give data protection at all (aside from DRM).
There's no saction from Apple to use the iPad in business. They claim it's a consumer device, and not one for business. Ask them.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
And its ability to do lots of sophisticated work, today, isn't very good.
I assume that you don't know anything about software development. The ability or lack there of is only limited by the software written for it. Rather than spouting nebulous hyperbole, why not give an example of what it lacks for "business" use.
Worse, there are no anti-malware/virus pieces (yeah, probably unnecessary but probably required anyway).
Sorry, but how can it be unnecessary and yet required? Is that from some retarded interpretation of SOX? In the non-jailbroken configuration, there is no need for anti-malware because everything runs in a sandbox.
There are no fleet management components or APIs.
Then write one. Do you seriously expect the OS to write
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There are no fleet management components or APIs.
Read up on the iPhone Configuration Utility, http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/enterprise/ [apple.com] I think you'll be surprised.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
"There are no fleet management components or APIs.
There are no policy controls to prevent data theft of give data protection at all (aside from DRM).
There's no saction from Apple to use the iPad in business. They claim it's a consumer device, and not one for business. Ask them."
I just made a policy for a client using one of Apple's tools to ensure that a PIN is used on iPhones connected to Exchange servers, as well as erase the device after 10 failed attempts. It isn't a significant security policy, but st
Re:does not compute (Score:5, Insightful)
No, it's not. The article makes some good points, sure. But the real reason the iPad succeeds where other laptops fail is that it's the first tablet that didn't suck. Every tablet before it has had a resistive touchscreen and a swivel-hinge keyboard, with the CPU under the keyboard. The iPad has the CPU with the display, and no keyboard. If you want a keyboard, you buy an external one.
Every tablet before the iPad had a hard drive. Hard drives are big, and draw a lot of power. That is, they suck.
Every tablet before the iPad had an Intel CPU. Intel CPUs are big, and draw a lot of power. That is, they suck.
Every tablet before the iPad ran Windows. Windows is designed for PCs. For tablets, it sucks.
Every tablet before the iPad weighed in at over three pounds, because of the Intel CPU, the hard drive, the hinge, and the battery required to support all that. You couldn't hold them in your hands unsupported for ten minutes, much less an hour--you'd have to cradle them. They were designed to do too many things, so they sucked at the one thing tablets really need to do--replace a pad of paper or a book.
Every tablet before the iPad had a battery life of maybe five or six hours, if you were really careful, and two or three, if you weren't. The iPad's battery will last through a full work day of full time use. It doesn't suck.
That's why it's the first tablet to succeed in the market.
It's all about customer convenience (Score:4, Funny)
>> why tablets have never taken off in business
No cupholders.
Re: (Score:2)
>> why tablets have never taken off in business
No cupholders.
No donut holders.
Re:It's all about customer convenience (Score:5, Funny)
>> why tablets have never taken off in business
No cupholders.
The reason tablets have never taken off is because you have to press that stylus really, really hard to cut into the stone.
I thought it was poor aerodynamics... (Score:4, Funny)
and not enough thrust.
Re:It's all about customer convenience (Score:5, Funny)
I can only imagine how difficult it would be to balance use a tablet based cupholder.
bass ackwards? (Score:4, Interesting)
"It's all about giving users freedom to figure out how useful tablets can be, he says"
Umm, aren't people buying these *because* the software ecosystem is more locked down and controlled than a traditional computer is? To a lot of people that is an advantage if it reduces their risk of malware.
Something seems backwards. There are far less restricted machines out there, but people prefer the iPads instead of those.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
different kind of restriction
Re: (Score:2)
To a lot of people that is an advantage if it reduces their risk of malware.
You seriously think that is a consideration for more than say 1% of iPad buyers?
If that's so high up on the general public's priorities, how come Windows is still the most popular OS, IE is still the most common browser, PDF is such a common document format, etc?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Because everyone uses them. It's not choice, it's doing the same things as almost everybody else.
And there's nothing wrong with PDF, btw. The problem is Acrobat Reader on Windows.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
And there's nothing wrong with PDF, btw. The problem is Acrobat Reader on Windows.
Adobe Reader is terrible; but I'm not willing to let PDF off the hook that easily.
Check out the PDF 1.7 spec. It's a total disaster.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
In the modern era securing PDFs shouldn't take much effort, declaring the region that it's loaded into to be non-executable ought to go a long way towards that. Although since PDFs can be essentially executed, that kind of makes that a challenge.
What? (Score:2, Insightful)
However, there exists another key to Apple's success: its products are built around giving people freedom in the user experience. Apple lets you figure out how best to make use of their handhelds. The App Store is a beautiful demonstration of this--it's all about choosing what you want to do with your iPhone or iPad, and not being badgered into using them in a particular way.
Err no. Apple locks down the user experience and rejects apps that change it or threaten it in any way, like widgets and alternate browsers etc.
By way of a demonstration of how not to do it, take a look at Windows Phone 7. Everything is built-in, making for a very focused device. You want Facebook? It's built-in. You want Gmail? It's there. It feels like Windows Phone 7 is trying too hard.
Although it might sound like built-in tools present a lot of usability, what Microsoft is actually doing is limiting the user by pushing them into particular usage scenarios. It's feels too limiting. The user has little freedom to adapt the phone to their way of working without a significant amount of tedious configuration.
That makes no sense whatsoever. Slow news Saturday?
Re:What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple may lock it down for the average user, but not for ENTERPRISE. Who within some minor boundaries (No using the enterprise program to build your own app store to sell to others, and no using it to write software that does it's best to harm the cell phone network) are free to develop and distribute within their business whatever they'd like.
Re:What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually no one is more equal than another. An enterprise or private user can pay the fee and write all the code they want for their own device(s). Only when they want to distribute to the app store do any rules come into play. What enterprise is going to put their apps for internal use on the app store anyway?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Honestly, this is no different than any company is. If you think Red Hat, or Microsoft, or Oracle, or any major tech company is going to treat the customer paying the least, exactly identically to the customer paying the most, then you're quite deluded. Hell, this extends beyond the tech industry too. You think your average run of the mill restaurant treats the customer who's there on their first, and possibly only visit the same as the customer who comes in every single day? Sure a good restaurant is g
Re: (Score:3)
and rejects apps that change it or threaten it in any way
Yeah, no, that is complete and utter nonsense. You need to stop listening to the bullshit the Internet feeds you and start paying some attention to the real world.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
and rejects apps that change it or threaten it in any way
Yeah, no, that is complete and utter nonsense. You need to stop listening to the bullshit the Internet feeds you and start paying some attention to the real world.
Oh really? So you mean this not out of the real world?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/01/apple_boots_widgety_apps_from_app_store/ [theregister.co.uk]
Maybe it's not real in the RDF zone.
It was cost. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
The reason the tablets we've had since the 90's never really caught on was because they didn't do enough beyond what a notebook did to justify the difference in price.
Yet well before the iPad was this company [axiotron.com] which took your Apple laptop and made a tablet out of it. They have been around for a while so there must have already been a market for high priced tablets.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The reason the tablets we've had since the 90's never really caught on was because they didn't do enough beyond what a notebook did to justify the difference in price.
Yet well before the iPad was this company [axiotron.com] which took your Apple laptop and made a tablet out of it. They have been around for a while so there must have already been a market for high priced tablets.
And Axiotron is doing how well? Not very. They're barely creeping along. Interesting you mention them however - their primary customers are arsty fartsy types who utilize the fact that they've married a Wacom tablet to a MacBook. Not many Enterprise users, I'll warrant. They're trying to develop a MacBook Pro based unit and their promo literature hints at expanded uses in business setting, but I don't even think the product is shipping.
weight and battery life (Score:2, Informative)
No, it wasn't cost. It was weight and battery life. I had a couple of tablet-style computers over the years. They were nice machines and not all that expensive.
But at over 1" thick and weighing 6 pounds, you simply couldn't comfortably carry them around. They also took too long to turn on and off. You couldn't build a powerful lightweight tablet at the time at any price.
Now that we have the processors, batteries, and screens that make lightweight, long-lasting tables possible, they are appearing from m
Steal the market? (Score:5, Interesting)
The reason the tablet never took off is because it's just a more expensive, less powerful laptop. The iPad isn't REPLACING the laptop anytime soon. Hell, it isn't even REPLACING the tablet. The people who have adopted the tablet will continue using it. Everyone else will continue using their laptops for 99% of their business oriented tasks, and keep their iPad's around when they don't want to lug around a full laptop, and don't need to get any "real work" done. If I'm going on an overnight trip to attend a meeting where I'm not presenting, you bet your ass I'll probably just grab an iPad for the flight to watch movies and check email. If I have to get any work done, I'm taking a laptop.
I would be willing to bet the reason most business users have picked up an iPad is the same reason I have: 10 hours of movie playback. I can watch movies for almost my entire trip to Sydney on one charge. You aren't getting anywhere close to that with anything else on the market today.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
This:
"I can watch movies for almost my entire trip to Sydney on one charge."
Yep. Jokes aside. It really *is* a giant iPod Touch.
And that's exactly what the people want.
Re: (Score:2)
Now if only Apple could bring a bigger iPad with a bigger battery life. Same display resolution but bigger display. Older people hate "small displays". Give them 13" displays minimum. Bonus side: lower DPI means the display shouldn't cost more than the 9.7" and you can put a bigger battery inside it.
Nintendo proved there is a market for that with their Nintendo DSi XL.
Re: (Score:3)
Now if only Apple could bring a bigger iPad with a bigger battery life. Same display resolution but bigger display. Older people hate "small displays". Give them 13" displays minimum.
Then they could add a keyboard, to make it more useful for when you have to enter lots of text.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Er, they did. You have two options: the keyboard dock, and the bluetooth keyboard. Both work great for entering lots of data. The bluetooth keyboard is even portable, although I am not really in the habit of bringing it along--it turns out not to be necessary most of the time when I'm out and about, but the iPad itself is damned useful, particularly if you're in a strange city.
Re:Steal the market? (Score:5, Informative)
Are you kidding me? I used my iPad are the office all the time. Granted, I'm not compiling Java on it, but there are plenty of uses over and above email at the office.
It makes a great portable Web-Ex client, as well as GotoMeeting and other presentation formats. It handles documents well. Using iAnnotate lets me markup and read PDF docs.
I also found it great for reading specs rather than killing trees with paper or trying to read them off a computer screen. I can take them with me with ease.
I also have RDP and VNC clients plus a shell terminal (no, not jailbroken) lets me SSH into other boxes and do sys admin work as well as a slew of other network tools available.
Add on top of that the fact that I can do Voip calls and listen to my music all at the same time.
Re:Steal the market? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Are you kidding me? I want to throw mine across the room whenever I try to type text into it. Why the fuck are you using it as a terminal when perfectly usable computers with keyboards are available?
Re:Steal the market? (Score:5, Insightful)
It makes a great portable Web-Ex client, as well as GotoMeeting and other presentation formats. It handles documents well. Using iAnnotate lets me markup and read PDF docs.
I also found it great for reading specs rather than killing trees with paper or trying to read them off a computer screen. I can take them with me with ease.
[...] Add on top of that the fact that I can do Voip calls and listen to my music all at the same time.
At my office, we do all that stuff with laptops that cost about as much as an iPad, but they also run Office and various other productivity apps. Have you discovered any advantage of doing them on an iPad instead, or are you just pointing out that the iPad isn't 100% useless in an office environment?
I also have RDP and VNC clients plus a shell terminal (no, not jailbroken) lets me SSH into other boxes and do sys admin work as well as a slew of other network tools available.
My god, why would you torture yourself by trying to do remote desktop and SSH without a keyboard? I mean, yes, those tools exist, but the iPad itself really isn't suited for typing more than a few words at a time.
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Lots of the current generation Netbooks can run at 9hours on their batteries.
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That's funny I just went to a 2 week long training class where the instructors used an iPad to present all their lectures everyday all day long. Using Keynote presentations and videos here and there it was 10x better than the typical Power Point crap I've been subjected to.
You can do plenty of "real work" on an iPad if you're not married to MS Office.
Actually I forgot my own iPad delivered lecture that went smoother than previous ones using a laptop, partly because it fit on the podium I was stuck with and
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but at the expense of having a 4.8" instead of a 9.7" screen.
Personally, anything less than my laptop's 12" isn't enough to watch a movie, and even this is pushing it.
Partially correct (Score:2)
I think he's got it partly right: from the outset, the big markets identified for tablet computers were hospital, warehouse inventory, and maintenance person type jobs. Note these are cases where somebody probably runs just a single app and they didn't choose the app themselves it was a condition of their job. In other words, its a crummy data entry device.
The iPad seems like the first tablet that's positioned as something someone would actually enjoy using, rather than being a Windows XP notebook with a ba
Re: (Score:2)
That said, to this hacker it seems absurd to think of an iPad representing freedom. It looks to me more like a cross between an etch-a-sketch, finger paints, and a television.
Except that two of the three things you mention are totally freeform products for creating all sorts of stuff. It gets even weirder when an avowed Apple fan such as myself acknowledges that this isn't the iPad's forte.
Methinks people shouldn't denigrate the etch-a-sketch and fingerpaints.
Re: Finger paints, Etch-a-sketch (Score:2)
Yes, you're right. Etch-a-sketches and finger paints are creative media.
I apologize. I shouldn't have compared them to the iPad.
Consumer features vs. Business features (Score:3, Interesting)
The features that have made the iPad a huge success are very consumer oriented features:
Will those benefits apply to business customers? Maybe, but none of those are things that business really cares about. In fact, some people (service providers and IT departments) have a lot to lose by recommending a device with those first two features. It's possible the only effect this will have is on how happy business users are with the equipment they're given.
Of course there are no iPads in businesses (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Of course there are no iPads in businesses (Score:5, Funny)
no, but In soviet america, Jobs has Hipsters!
It's pretty simple (Score:2)
Tablets as they exist currently are more or less useless for business purposes. They target a different market. Must be a slow news day.
Surely he jests (Score:2)
"There's a lot to be said for having faith in users to make best use of their computer, without pushing and pulling them in ways you think are best for them."
He said that about an Apple product??? Believe me, in the past the limits imposed on tablet users were mostly because of limitations in the technology; with Apple it's blatantly lack of faith in users to make best use of their computer, by pushing and pulling them in ways they think are best for them.
And no, I don't often partake in Apple bashing, but
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's one way to put it. Or one could say they make it really, incredibly easy to do 90% of the stuff people want to, while making it near impossible to shoot yourself in the foot trying to do the other 10% (by preventing it from happening).
A more cynical explanation ... (Score:2, Insightful)
... would be that historically, the "business" community has rarely adopted anything computer-like until it comes out with the IBM logo on it. Back in the 1980s, lots of little companies were marketing desktop computers, but they were considered toys by the business community, until IBM came out with theirs.
Now, I can hear people saying "What about Microsoft, huh?" This is an example that supports the thesis, since Microsoft's first successes were with the machines labelled as "IBM Personal Computers". F
Re:A more cynical explanation ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Given that IBM has pretty much exited the personal computer market I really don't understand what you are trying to say. You do realize they just market re-branded Lenovo stuff in that space right? I also think any executive issuing a PO for such equipment is not so clueless that they can't understand the differences between Microsoft, IBM, and Lenovo and I also doubt very much your thesis they don't care to understand.
You either have astonishingly poor communication skills or actually do work with a bunch of monkeys and PHBs. I am not suggesting most Officers don't have their PHB moments but if yours are still having that moment in Q4-2010 you might want to look for another job because your firm's days are probably few.
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Hmm, I think your information is about 15 years out of date.
Today, surely every businessperson knows Microsoft isn't the software-development division of IBM anymore. They're the software-development division of Dell.
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Yes, I've asked business people about this, and I've gotten funny looks, because "everyone knows" that Microsoft is part of IBM. If you try going into an explanation of why this isn't technically true, you merely find yourself dismissed as a geek trying to confuse them with Too Much Information. They don't need to know the details of the arrangement; they just know that "computer" and "IBM machine" are and always have been synonyms, and the small ones run Microsoft software, so Microsoft is IBM's small-computer software developer.
Which business people have you been talking to? Montgomery Burns?
Actually, scratch that. Montgomery Burns would associate IBM with OS/360 and AS/400. You, on the other hand, appear to have been talking to someone who got trapped in a cave sometime around 1983 and only emerged last year.
FWIW, IBM hasn't made PCs or laptops since 2005 at least, and even then they were losing money on the PC business hand over fist. Maybe you're thinking of Compaq? (They're part of HP now, BTW.)
Rather off the mark (Score:2)
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isnt it rather because technology finally reached a point where a device that is the size of a tablet provides acceptable resolution, processing power, battery life, thinness/lightness, and an acceptable touchscreen interface ? and apple jumped in at the right time ?
They also jettisoned the inappropriate WIMP interface, a not inconsequential addition to what you've stated. (Yes, I know, save me the effort of point out a dozen products over the years that used a similar interface. Those devices lacked the technical merits that the post I'm replying to mentions. Good hardware with WIMP fails, bad hardware without WIMP fails. The current popularity of tablets requires not only good hardware, but non-WIMP)
The simplest explanation... (Score:4, Interesting)
...is that they wre horribly overpriced. I wanted a Windows tablet when they first came out, right up until I found em priced at $2000 and up. What the hell? You could get two nice laptops for that.
Even today they run about twice what they should. Apple waltzes in with a tablet half the cost of a Windows tablet, and it actually works well with its touch interface ... It is not at all hard to see why people liked it.
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I once had a Windows tablet. The problem really was, the form factor itself would have worked, but...
It was a pain in the arse to use thanks to Windows, it was heavy, it had fans, in other words, it went from a useful want to have it idea straight to ebay... The only thing this thing was good at was crayon physics, not even reading was decent (which I bought it for) due to its 16:9 form factor. I was so glad Apple went to a letterbox/a4 like form factor for the ipad because it makes reading more decent. Thi
It's penetrating business more than you think (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm in the middle of converting a law firm from laptop's with docking stations to desktops and ipads. The whole process started when the senior partner with a gadget fetish picked up an ipad at launch. My job was to wrestle with what he wanted to do vs what it was capable of and find ways to make it work. The issue before had been that a lawyer would have to carry their laptop, charger, bag and usually some sort of 3g card or pray for wifi access, this is in addition to a briefcase with all the needed papers (legal is still one area where paperless is impossible) for the case. My job was to find out how to do all of the same stuff they normally do with just the ipad and a keyboard. I warned them that I didn't think it was possible, but managed to prove myself wrong.
It took 4 apps to get them up and running, iAnnotate for pdf editing, documents to go for normal word and excel stuff, iDictate for DSS compatible dictation and iTeleport for remote access if they really need to connect to their profile back in the office. The rest of the functionality is out of the box. Now they can send, receive, edit and review any documents or media related to the case directly without having to hassle with all the gear, security settings, etc. It may not be for everyone, but for some jobs its been a blessing.
Incidentally, he tried this about 5 years ago with an HP TX1100, thought the functionality was there (they were slates that ran XP) the lack of a touch or pen oriented interface made it clumsy at best, it had all the bells and whistles, it was upgradeable, had usb, memory card readers, etc...but due to its identity crisis it just wasn't comfortably useable as a tablet or as a notebook.
Re:My personal view: (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're buying an iPad or iPhone and think that you can run something that didn't come from the App store, you should have done better research. For many people what Apple produces is sufficient. For those who want features that Apple doesn't provide, there are other options. I see no point in complaining that a device doesn't do what you want if you're never going to buy one in the first place, buy something else.
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I was given to understand that the reason the Ipad hasn't succeeded in a business environment is because the Windows based Tablet already dominates that market. I know the local hospital purchased a ton of tablets recently when they underwent a huge remodeling.
Except that's not what the article or the summary say. It is about how the iPad is supplanting those traditional tablets.
Re:Market Belongs to Microsoft? (Score:5, Interesting)
I was given to understand that the reason the Ipad hasn't succeeded in a business environment is because the Windows based Tablet already dominates that market. I know the local hospital purchased a ton of tablets recently when they underwent a huge remodeling.
Except that's not what the article or the summary say. It is about how the iPad is supplanting those traditional tablets.
It isn't the first time the article has been full of shit. I work in 2 government departments, they bought a stack of ipad's with the assumption that the intitial trial would lead to full scale rollout and do as the article suggested. It took all of about 3 weeks before most of the 30 trial ipads been returned to IT (think the number stands at 22 returned) and they went back to laptops/tablets. The Ipad is nice but it just isn't a good work tool, it is something for entertainment.
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Re:Market Belongs to Microsoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah but what "market" are we talking about here? I've walked around a lot of enterprises and I haven't seen many tablets, Windows or otherwise. My understanding has always been that except for individual enthusiasts, the markets (plural) for Windows Tablets have traditionally been verticals -- healthcare, oil and gas, things like that. These aren't Compaq tablets that you order from Tiger Direct, either; they tend to be purpose-built, ruggedized devices. I don't really see the iPad worming its way into those markets with any great speed.
And even if iPad has "stolen the entire market" -- a statement I choose to interpret as saying that people who have bought iPads are happy with them and have no plans to switch to something else -- how big is that market really? I hear vague statements about iPad sales. I live in the City of San Francisco and I've maybe seen 2-3 iPads out in the wild. Maybe most people keep theirs at home, I don't know -- but you would think that if mobility is such a big factor in why people are buying these things, I'd see more of them around town. By comparison, I feel safe to assume that just about every single person I pass on the street has access to a laptop, or at the very least a desktop PC or Mac. The iPad's true market presence does not seem very significant by comparison.
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The apple is really just a gloriphied iPhone that doesn't call people and is slightly larger though, it doesn't do anything that would make it useful in the proprietary tablet market (anything in any industry I hinted at above), as long as apple has their penis connected to the device, and prohibits 3rd party software from being installed without going through the appstore and such bullshit makes it so useless.
Sure there are games and a few useful applications, but the essence of a useful tablet is not the
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Joe, the majority of users do not need or want an integrated keyboard adding additional bulk. Those who want a keyboard can get a case which let's you use the Apple Bluetooth keyboard but then it is no longer a tablet form factor and you might as well use a laptop instead.
I sometimes put the Apple wireless keyboard in my messenger bag along with the iPad in an apple iPad case so that I can prop the ipad up and type more text with the keyboard for longer emails but the onscreen keyboard is fine most of the t