Posted on 12/18/2010 9:38:37 AM PST by stripes1776
(CNN) -- Less than a year ago, some technology pundits questioned whether Apple's "iTablet" would find any buyers. InfoWorld ventured to explain "Why Apple's rumored iTablet will fail big time," while VentureBeat's 2010 predictions included the claim that "tablets will fail."
Fast-forward to the end of 2010, and the iPad is a smash hit. eMarketer predicts that Apple will sell 13.3 million iPads this year, and one survey ranked the iPad as the most-wanted gift this holiday season.
But the iPad has reshaped more than just the device market: From publishing to web design, we're seeing the iPad change the world in unexpected ways.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
First, I like the concept of the iPad and slates.
Second, some people count a calculator as a business app, so spare me the "count".
The fact remains that outside of e-mail and web browsing, the iPad (and other alternatives) are poor laptop replacements....slates are not very good word processors, not great at spreadsheets and very poor presentation creators/editors.
Will slates develop into true laptop replacements? Absolutely. But not today and not for the real business user.
I'm an institutional equities trader. I just spoke to two of the largest institutional brokerage firms last week. Both are releasing iPad trading apps in 2011.
Thompson Reuters came to my office and installed several apps on my iPad
And, my firm gave out iPads to the entire marketing staff.
This is the first iteration of the iPad. So, surely things are moving in that direction.
The fire chief in Glendale California was in the Glendale store buying iPads for the fire department. He felt that they were better than laptops for fire fighters in the field.
Very far from the truth. My company will (hopefully) soon be rolling them out to all our field technicians. They are testing them now and they have surpassed all expectations. The employees will be able to perform all facets of their job with them, from closing out their service tickets, accessing instantly any service manual, bulletin, parts catalog, etc., to mapping their next service call (with GPS).
I said earlier this year that Apple will eventually sell over one billion iPads. My prediction will almost certainly come true. Over 13 million units sold in less than 8 months and we are only on version 1.0.
With respect to tablet technology, the product is only in its infancy. It is about where the personal computer was in 1982 or where the World Wide Web was in 1993. Anybody owning Apple stock is about to go on a rocket ride.
Erik. YOU don't use an iPad. YOU haven't got a clue what you are blithering about. I DO own an iPad and use it every day to help run my business and DO know what I am talking about as do the Citrix clients who YOU ignored. You do know who Citrix is, don't you?
Erik, I am not an idiot. I AM a real business user... In a real business environment. Did you bother to read what the articles I linked said? What the business people who are actually using the iPads said?
I am not talking about "calculator" apps on the iPads. I am involved in integrating iPads into medical/dental offices. I KNOW what I am talking about. It is very obvious YOU don't! I'm paying several hundred dollars per app for medical certified apps that link to our dental office management package that supports realtime instant accurate diagnostic radiography display and medical/dental charting, patient records, insurance, and billing... And you talk about "calculators?" BAH!
We have our iPads wirelessly connected into the video output of our phase contrast diagnostic microscope so that we can instantly show our patients the living microscopic beasties that are in their mouths that can kill them as the results of poor oral care. . . and then show them a training video on the proper care that will kill the beasties instead.
Are you aware I can connect to a Windows or Mac desk top computer with my iPad and control it completely if necessary? That I can access and edit my Excel and Word documents from my iPad anywhere I am? That I can also access, edit and display my PowerPoint and Keynote presentations from my iPad?
One of the partner dentists in the office I manage is taking his iPad to India in January where he will be the Keynote Speaker at the Indian Congress of Dental Implantology Convention to present a technique he developed and teach Indian dentists how to do the implants. His entire presentation will be sent wirelessly from his iPad to an AppleTV equipped video projector as he gives his speech, controlled by his iPad in his hands. He can edit any last minute changes he wants right in the iPad. He has it backed up on his iPhone.
I asked you earlier if your were aware of what could be done with the iPad... Obviously you aren't because you just told me that I can't do what I AM and many others are doing with our iPads.
Oh I can absolutely see the utility for a fire department. Ready access to material safety data sheets; access to blue prints for buildings; if firefighter helmets were equipped with small video cams - realtime wireless feeds from inside a building to the chiefs outside.
I have heard of the Ipad and have seen it in Walmart, question is, what is it?
Sounds like a techno fad. Here today, gone tomorrow.
Yes, in order to use an iPad for serious work, you must connect to a REAL computer, making your iPad nothing more than a mobile monitor.
You do this because the iPad is not up to the task of doing all those things on its own.
That is not a dig, not an insult...it is a fact. Most other slates cannot do these things, either....but they could all be used as a remote monitor.
Thank you for demonstrating that the iPad cannot run business applications on its own.
The iPad is a highly mobile computer with a touch screen. I don't think this is a fad. I think it is the biggest change in computers since the PC.
I will give you an example. My sister is a computer idiot and hater. I tried to get her to use a PC 10 years ago, but she hated it. She just wouldn't use it. This year she got an iPad. She is now sending emails regularly with it. She is now using the Web. She is also running some of the other apps on the iPad. She loves it.
This is not a fad. It is the future of computers.
Are you stuck in the 1980s? Practically everyone in the world interconnects to other computers via the Internet to get things done. I remember using a PDP-8 in the early 1970s that could do things on its own. I'm a systems engineer and I prefer the inter-connected computer environment.
Agree with you, except its a stepping-stone on the future path of computers. I feel the same way about the iPad as I do about the early Apple II which I bought in the late 1970s. I own serial number 317 - Wozniak probably worked on it himself. At the time people said it was a fad. The Apple II was still being sold in the 1990s.
In 1984 I was trying to convince people of the merits of the Macintosh. My boss was a genious systems engineer. We worked together on machine code in the core of mainframes, I used mnemonic assembler code reference cards while he deciphered raw hex numbers from memory. Anyway, we used IBM PCs to do some of our tasks. He said "Mark my words, the mouse and GUI stuff are toys and a fad. You will never see a mouse on a PC.". I proved him wrong in a year. Just because you're smart on details doesn't mean you won't see the big picture.
The iPad is one of those devices which indicates a paradigm shift in the way we use computers.
10 years ago I took a JAVA course at a community college. The professor, an Indian from Indonesia (I think, where they don’t treat Indians kindly), double engineering Ph.D., talked about a device like the very iPad. To me, he was the first to think of it. Last time I checked, he’s still teaching classes.
Meant to say “Just because you’re smart on details doesn’t mean you will see the big picture.”. I have had some smart bosses who were short on common sense.
I remember the genius Microsoft fan-boys predicting a total product failure when the iPad came out...just like they do every time Apple introduces products.
Then they follow up months later gleefully predicting some product will a an i(fill in the blank) killer.
It is so predictable you can almost set your watch by it.
I don’t own an iPod, or an iPad, or Barnes@Noble’s latest colored (can ya say ‘colored’ any more or must you say African-American?) e-reader gizmo (own stock in the companies that are making bundles on these devices, thank you very much) and I agree that these are fads, like the Osborne computer once was, even if they lead to something else, as Osborne did, such articles and threads are self-congratulatory, and one doesn’t expect to read a critical article about these devices, except perhaps Walter Mossberg’s semi-critical WSJ column.
So you DIDN'T bother to read anything I linked to or, for that matter, anything I wrote, except what YOU think validates your erroneous opinion... which is based on no experience with the iPads at all. Contrary to your claims, the iPad DOES have NATIVE word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software that are MS Office file capable, create and edit.
Your claim that a computer with a 1GHz processor, 256MB of RAM, dedicated graphics processor, and between 16 and 64GB of storage, and instant access to Terabytes of further storage and other data, is incapable of running basic business applications is ludicrous. . . Especially considering mainframe computers ran businesses for decades with far less processor speed, RAM, or storage. . . not to mention the many businesses, small and large, that were run for years with micro computers with similar or much lesser resources.
My point about connecting to one's desktop was it's ability to extend your range of productivity AWAY from the office and still retain access to everything as though you were still sitting at the your desk with all its resources right at hand—not that the iPad would be doing the work on your desktop computer, although you can do that if you need to, but that's an awkward method of working. . . and mostly not necessary. . . only YOU think it is.
You mean like Exchange-integrated email, SAP Business Objects, Dragon Dictation, MobileIron Sentry and hundreds of others?
It pushed a few Apple-bashers even further into their madness.
No, but many IT departments and many, many companies are backward....hence, the reason new technologies do not penetrate as fast as some desire.
I am a massive fan of the slate format. I completely agree that it is the future of computing. I also completely understand that technologies, like cloud computing, are the future.
However, the iPad is a first generation device that is still in its infancy with regard to capability. This is why you see everybody scrambling and redesigning their slates (like HP) to deliver a product that meets the needs of consumers.
The iPad just whet everyone's appetite and now companies are discovering what people REALLY want.
It is not a knock against Apple or iPad fans (although they are extremely sensitive when you don't join the club).
Strange assertion, when I see people crashing a thread and spreading trash-talk on a product. Not that you would do that, but others take joy in stating unwarranted claims. I've worked on computers since the mid-sixties, and want to see new technologies thrive. Yet some people are like rabid mobs with torches trying to burn down something new that they haven't tried. The worst offenders are PC bigots. I've seen it up close. Among many of my tasks as a senior systems engineer and IT manager, I was a chief Windows/NT administrator over hundreds of servers and desktops. A lot of Windows guys can't see the merits of enjoying multiple platforms and "seeing the forest and not just a few trees". If you don't like Apples, don't insult those who do. Apple users will be the first to tell you of shortcomings with a first-generation product, particularly a product that other manufacturers say is doomed to failure but that they soon scramble to replicate. Apple is pushing the envelope. And it is successful. To me, my iPad is a miracle machine compared to the first computer I played with in the early 60s.
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