Just a couple months ago, Apple released their iPad Pro – a nearly 13-inch iteration of the tablet with a stylus and side connector for an integrated keyboard.
The display is impressive, and the size resembles that of an actual computer monitor.
Despite all the big-wigs predicting the death of the laptop, however, we have yet to see them replaced by tablets in any sort of large scale—at least in the business sphere. In fact, across our hundreds of clients, we can count on one hand how many organizations use tablets in any sort of significant way.
Is it because tablets simply are a poor fit for business use? We’ll explore that below.
Main factors that indicate whether or not the iPad will work for you
Here are the primary elements to look at when trying to decide if an iPad will be a good fit to help you perform your job functions:
- What you do. Does your day-to-day consist mainly of answering emails? Writing proposals? Communicating with internal staff? Payroll? Graphic design?
- Where your data is. Does your company store its files in a cloud-based application you can access online? Is there an application you can download? Or would you need to connect to a network server?
- What your eyes can put up with. Can you actually go a whole day staring at a tablet that is, on average, less than 10 inches tall and 8 inches wide?
Will an iPad work for your business?
If your needs are simple and your eyes are resilient, you could probably get away with using this light, ultra-portable tablet for your day-to-day. The retail and restaurant industries in particular have had great success with using iPads in a point-of-sale capacity.
If, however, you need use of any software application that doesn’t have a corresponding Apple app, you are out of luck. Document creation/editing is also quite difficult and uncomfortable, as is any intensive graphics work.
There’s a very real issue of security here, too: unless you have a corporate-grade file sharing solution that integrates with iPads, employees are likely to come up with work-arounds (their personal Dropbox or email accounts, most commonly) to access the network files they need. Once your company data gets in these places, there’s simply no way to get it out.
Ultimately, I’d say that while the iPad is a choice for a business device, it is not the choice. (Especially in light of recent innovation in both the smartphone and the laptop sphere, which we talk about more in this article for the American City Business Journals.)
For me, laptops are still the way to go. My 10-year-old daughter can keep the iPad for herself.