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PW – I think you’re right on about this from a few angles and missed few points as well.
1) the laptop is too much for the truly mobile employee, we’ve seen the rise and fall of the mini (NEC900), the palmtop, the netbook. All devices that tried to shrink the laptop. We’ve also seen the limitations of the smartphone, iPad, WinMo, Android…all of those are trying to stuff too much tecnology into “too small” of a form factor. Most folks’ major complaint about the iPhone is that it’s not a good phone.Those things are signs that companies & and consumers are crying for a solution to the middle ground…we wouldn’t have seen the launch of some 50 tablets in 2010 were that not the case.
The apps, the management and the security are the major issues that many folks claim to have solved. The tablet market is shaping up to be much cheaper (and sexier) than the laptop market, so a “workable” solution to apps, mgmt & security is very attractive to Enterprise IT managers as well as the end users. Consider the last time that IT & Sales agreed on the end use device and you quickly realize the potential.
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Totally agreed Michael. In fact, as with all successful products that solve a problem, the re-emergence of the tablet via the iPad is in my opinion more a success based on timing rather than tech value. People are tired of the weight of the laptop, the limitations of their smartphones and the netbook was simply not the answer.
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Tablet Market 2.0 – The Impending iPad Revolution
We all know what kind of a skeptic I am. I was skeptical about the iPhone when it was first released, and I definitely didn’t think it would gain much traction in the enterprise. Boy was I wrong about that….simply because the iPhone sparked the consumerization of enterprise mobility. The iPad however is an interesting transformational event though.
I obviously can’t give any specifics of what I learned, but the short version is that I already see a halo effect coming from the iPhone to the iPad. The interesting thing is that this halo effect is coming directly from the companies themselves, and not just from the individuals who waited in line the day the iPad was first available.
Whether I agree(d) with it or not, the iPad is set to create a transformational revolution in terms of how people are going to be doing business. There was more than one conversation I had where I learned about companies thinking about deploying tens, if not hundreds, of THOUSANDS of these devices. That’s amazing. These companies are seeing an opportunity to provide their workforces an even more mobile solution than the laptop. The numbers don’t suggest yet that the iPad and tablet PCs will cannibalize laptop sales, but the possibility has become that much more real in my mind after these last couple of days.
So I, of course, have to think about mobility management and security. Vendors – vendors I had never even heard of – are coming up with some VERY interesting solutions to deal with the iPad’s software limitations. This is becoming increasingly tangible.
My closing thought of the week is this: Apple clearly has the time to market lead for tablets 2.0 – they also have tremendous amounts of buzz and excitement behind them. Apple will be a real contender in the tablet 2.0 market (did I just coin a term?). That said, don’t count out just yet all the other mobile OS platforms. They’re behind, but many have some compelling technologies that could leapfrog what Apple has accomplished thus far. It’s way too early to tell who will have the greatest market share in the tablet 2.0 market.
Your company, however, may very well be deploying them for you in the near future.