iPad in the Enterprise with some surprising benefits

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor

Since the iPad has just hit the 1M mark in shipments,  and I’m seeing the iPad around the office (including with the executives), and I hadn’t decided whether I “needed” one or not, I thought I would ask my colleagues about the pros and cons.  I talked to one of our directors in operations and a system engineer in IT about what they liked and didn’t like with regards to the iPad as an enterprise mobility device.

Bottom Line: Not a replacement for a laptop, but there are some surprising benefits.

They were very enthusiastic about having it as a device for moving from meeting to meeting, staying connected and on-track with schedules and tasks. The iPad is not a replacement, but a “great supplement to a desktop or laptop.”

What they like:

• Battery life is “excellent” – “My day is usually packed with back to back meetings” – the laptop with power cord is a hassle and the iPhone is insufficient for a lot of email typing.
• Manage tasks better because the usability is great for tracking schedule, work email, viewing documents and note taking.
• Short or infrequent travel, where you can get by with email, some content creation and email
• Fast – “this can’t be overstated – for casual use like checking a document or responding to e-mail while in a meeting or on the phone, a laptop or desktop wouldn’t even have gotten through the login screen yet I’ve already found the information I need and responded”
• Inexpensive (depends on your options)
• Small

What they don’t like:

• Not able to handle heavy work on the road, like coding, documentation, image editing, etc.
• Lack of proper standards – this isn’t an iPad issue, but for sites using Flash or poor HTML/CSS, this can be a problem, but not as frequent as expected. Microsoft Sharepoint has been an issue.
• No SSL VPN support (but should be released in the 4.0 release)
• Keyboard is difficult to use for UNIX command line work, because you have to continually shift to the secondary keypad for commonly used keys.
• It can’t replace a laptop
• Fingerprints! – the docking station would be nice, but it required removing the cover all the time.

What I always like are the surprises – the unexpected benefits, that sometimes not even a marketer can predict:

• “I’m using less paper, so my desk is less cluttered”
• The iPad went beyond being a “travel toy” to “really making my work day easier.”
• Nice “extra” screen for Webex conferences, with the laptop being used for researching and other work.
• Lack of multi-tasking was a concern, but the application switching is so fast, it’s not that noticeable.

Tags: Apple, iPad, mobile workforce