One of the best things about owning a tablet is the huge number of cool apps you can download to it. There are a lot of broad use apps for the daily tasks we all must accomplish, and even better are the focused apps that help us do little things in our life that we like to do. It might be an app for HVAC technicians, or a way to sort the key news feeds that a financial services professional needs to review on a daily basis. Read more
When we start to talk about using tablets in an enterprise, one of the first things that must be understood is that the tablets we all know and love are not industrial-strength designs focused on the needs of a commercial organization. Rather, these are consumer-first products that have real limitations when it comes to using them for business. And this isn’t just a hardware discussion, although there are some key hardware differences.
The first large difference that has to be addressed is the operating system. And the operating system is dramatically impacted depending on what the tablet is used for. Consumer tablets are for browsing, running little apps, games, and generally “light-weight” work. Read more
Originally Posted by Tom Kaneshige, CIO
Yesterday, my iPad broke.
Well, actually, some critical work apps hung up waiting to download updates, but what’s the difference? Apple’s miracle tablet was useless for work (which is why I’m writing this post on an old ThinkPad).
I spent a couple of hours trying to troubleshoot this problem and found an Apple support thread entitled “trouble downloading apps after iOS 6 update.” I wasn’t alone.
All sorts of workarounds appeared on the thread, from pushing the time ahead a couple of years to logging in and out of your Apple account to resetting the network settings and rebooting. I tried them all. I tried combinations. I tried to think happy thoughts. And I hoped it would just start working again. Read more
Today’s enterprise employees rely on anywhere from two to four different computers or mobile devices to do their jobs, from desktop and laptop PCs to tablets and smartphones. Managing a variety of different devices and operating systems can become a nightmare for users and for IT departments.
Microsoft and Apple are aiming to make this easier. You may already know that both Windows 8 and OS X Mountain Lion are launching this year, but you might not know how these two operating systems—as well as iOS, which is already in the market—will help you manage all the mobile devices in your workplace. Read more
Tablet operating systems are on the move: Android is already on version 4.0, iOS 6.0 is expected to show up this summer, Google Chrome is creeping into tablets, and Windows 8 will be taking over a tablet near you this fall.
Here are my thoughts on the tablet OS landscape and what it means for tablets at work: Read more
One of the hotter topics of the past few years in IT has been the debate about the relative virtues of the Android operating system (currently on version 4, code named Ice Cream Sandwich, hereafter referred to as ICS) versus the Apple operating system (iOS) for corporate use on tablets, and to a lesser extent, phones. My thoughts here are confined to the discussion around tablet operating systems (OS), not phones.
The progress that both operating systems have made toward becoming more easily manageable by corporate IT is interesting, and mostly well documented in many articles. Read more
Originally Posted By Don Reisinger
If Apple’s incredibly strong iPad sales during the fourth quarter told industry observers anything, it’s that the company’s tablet was far and away the most-desired slate of 2011. Part of that might be due to the fact that the tablet didn’t face much serious competition. But it’s also due to the quality consumers and even some enterprise users found in the device. But 2012 is a new year with a host of opportunities for every tablet maker. Every major firm, from Apple and Samsung to RIM and Amazon, has a chance at becoming the top tablet maker of the year. However, they’ll need to achieve that by delivering all the features that consumers and enterprise customers are looking for in their tablets. They’ll also need to promote the products effectively to make sure the world knows about the features and components that can make their models real contenders. This eWEEK slide show examines some of the key factors that will determine 2012’s tablet king. And unfortunately for Apple’s competitors, it appears the iPad has a long head start.
