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Businesses and Employees Understand Tablets Better

The proliferation of touch screens in consumer devices, and the ways in which consumers are using them at home, has made it easier for businesses to envision ways in which tablets can be used at work and in the field.

TabletKiosk President & CEO, Martin Smekal shares the effect of the iPad on his company with GottaBeMobile,

“The launch of the Apple iPad has been one of the best things to happen to our industry in years. The single most important result is that it validated the tablet marketplace. Apple does an exceptional job marketing to the masses, and the fallout of their ubiquitous campaigns is that awareness of the form factor and the potential for a total mobile solution was raised.

We used to spend the first half of all our sales meetings educating customers about the slate form factor, touch technology, digital inking – no more. People understand the technology on a much higher level and are trying to figure out how best to leverage it to increase productivity and return on investment.”

While the IT managers and business leaders now recognize tablets as a real tool, they are still learning about the capabilities of specific devices.

David Molesworth, General Manager at DAP Technologies explains that there are still hurdles, “We find that some customers overestimate what a consumer tablet can do.” Matt Miller, President of MobileDemand, shares a similar shift, telling GottaBeMobile that businesses are increasingly asking, “Why can’t I just use an iPad?”

That’s a great question. Here are a few examples of how these tablets differ from consumer tablets like the iPad.

What Makes These Tablets Different

Many things separate these enterprise tablets from the iPad, but several features standout — Ruggedness, Flexibility, Software and Accessories.

Rugged Tablets

When users are out in the field, performing mission critical work, or working in the pit of the Red Bull Racing team, durability and ruggedness matters.

All of the individuals we spoke to from these companies noted the ruggedness and the need for tablets to handle the real workforce. Xplore tablets can withstand seven foot drops and are waterproof and DAP technologies points out that DAP tablets can be used with gloves, something that consumer tablets can’t do (without special gloves).

As you can see in the video below, these tablets can take a beating. Matt Miller of MobileDemand puts the xTablet T7000 through a harsh set of tests that would render an iPad, even one in a rugged case, unusable. I’ve even seen these tablets used to drive a nail.

Flexibility to do Real Work

Another comment we heard often is that these tablets allow users to do much more, including those tasks that consumer tablets aren’t as good at, or can’t do.

Martin Smekal of TabletKiosk shared that the company saw increased sales to customers who want to use a tablet PC to control devices and machines remotely. This can range from a locksmith machine or sound equipment to emergency room variables such as table position, lighting, and surgical cameras.

Other tasks include scanning barcodes quickly, use RFID or interfacing with industry specific tools to handle mission critical applications, where downtime is costly.

Software and Accessories

Because these tablets use Windows software, businesses don’t need to spend as much time training employees on how to do their work. Sure, there is some tablet training, but the iPad has made employees more comfortable. With a Windows tablet PC they can access the same tools they use on their notebook.

We also see the flexibility to connect to multiple wireless carriers from a single device, unlike the iPad which operates on AT&T or on Verizon depending which model you buy.

The iPad may have thousands of accessories, but enterprise tablets have plenty of work specific duties, too......

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It’s no secret enterprises have begun to adopt tablets with the same fervor of consumers. Since the debut of Apple’s iPad in Jan. 2010, the integration of tablet devices into our lives and work has progressed rapidly — so fast that it’s sometimes hard to put in perspective how quickly got here.

In overall world market share for tablets, the iPad clobbers all others. The iPad accounted for nearly 80 percent of worldwide tablet sales during the past 12 months, but Android is slowly gaining ground, thanks to a wide variety of devices and prices. On the higher end, there are devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9, and on the lower end there’s the upcoming Amazon Kindle Fire and already well-established Nook Color.

Enterprise adoption is quite different from total adoption. A just-released survey from Good suggests the iPad and iPad 2 were responsible for 96 percent of tablet activations in the enterprise in the third quarter of 2011. With just 4 percent of activations being Android-based, Apple has a clear lead with the enterprise crowd.

Business users have different needs with their tablets, chief among them are strong and versatile applications that keep the mobile workforce connected. The iPad has a clear lead in this area with more than 136,000 iPad-optimized apps while Google won’t reveal how many apps are actually optimized for Honeycomb-based tablets. (Some estimates guess it is under 1,000 at present.) One of the most promising enterprise applications we’ve seen recently is Polycom’s video-conferencing app that works for both iPad and Android tablets.

It’s unclear at this point if Android will be able to take away much of the share the iPad has secured with enterprise users, especially in Bring-Your-Own-Device workplaces. But we’ll be watching to see what happens in this exciting space and let you know the latest.