“As most companies have looked to cut costs any way they could, the result has been a workforce equipped with underpowered devices, plastic enclosures and an outdated mobile paradigm that require most users to carry around a mouse and power cord to be of any real use,” Geoffrey Goetz reports for GigaOM. “Most business users have simply had enough, and for a very affordable price, are starting to fund their own IT revolution by bringing their new iPads to the workplace.”
Goetz reports, “At the latest iPad launch, I was able to talk with many individuals who all shared a common need, which was to have a simple, portable, powerful connected device. It struck me as I was conducting the latest round of iOS benchmarks that Moore’s Law may no longer be applicable, as Apple has found a way to enable individuals to think and communicate using less energy and less computing power, not more. You may not be using your iPad in the workplace yet, but even if that’s the case, the day when you will isn’t far off.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
iPad 2: Good Work: Bad
Last year when I worked for Microsoft, there was really nothing more satisfying that walking into a cafeteria or other common space, where dozens of employees would be set up with their laptops, power cords, mice, and sometimes a lot of other stuff, and kicking back in their midst with my iPad and be up and running in a fraction of a second. Everyone knew what I was doing, but no one would say anything, and you could see the envy and terror in their eyes as they stole furtive glances. There was such a colossal wall of denial that I knew right then that MS didn’t have any hope of dealing with the iPad Menace.
So C1, you’ve worked at both Adobe and Microsoft. What’s next, Google? Motorola?
I’d never work for Moto. Ever. Google has an office in Seattle, but they’re mostly egghead coder types, not really my scene. Amazon is here in town, and they hire a lot of photographers and designers, so maybe that’s the next big company I’ll take down. 😉
ATT gave all their Uverse installation techs iPads and iPhone 4’s and dumped the PC laptops they once carried.
My older sister and her family live near Redmond. Nice area – close to water, close to mountains, great waterfalls…
And now you’re unemployed sitting in your basement posting comments on Blogs.
If you wanna be a douchebag about it.
And how do you know she has a basement dick lick?
Fact: I don’t.
Soooooo rude. Not cool at all.
It’s not just for work, of course. I’m currently doing a lot of research into mobile devices for both my work (e-readers and tablets) and a grad school course (mobile learning). From what I’ve read and learned, the iPad has every advantage over other devices for schools, too. If Apple plays its cards right, students across the world will be carrying iPads around instead of backpacks full of text books, library books, calculators, laptops, etc. And districts’ Microsoft-certified I.T. drones will largely become web administrators, as everything will be accessed wirelessly.
One problem, though, is that so much mobile learning content is currently provided via Flash. Adobe’s Captivate and Suddenly Smart’s SmartBuilder, for example, output modules as Flash. Adobe seriously needs to get off of its lazy butt and optimize its bloated application for mobile, and soon.
… or convert these apps to HTML 5 since it’s pretty obvious that Flash is a battery consuming dump and not meant for portable use.
Interesting research. You may add an easy thing to your research outcome/findings… The use of bloated software for mobile learning applications is not good or smart thing to do.
Chris, a bloated piece of software cannot be optimized; in my view, it is better to dump it and build a good one from clean sheet. And bloated has nothing to do with laziness; you can be lazy and still do things right, yep, unbelievable. Adobe Flash is doomed.
ipad has been a huge success at our business ….. Finally we are able to show the customer high quality photos of their projects and other projects similar ….. Additionally we can access each others photo galleries thus able to share information and help each other ….
Last year we purchase four …. This year we are six and passing the four down thru the production ranks …. It will be interesting to see how the actual mechanics fare with the devices ….
The Swedish parliament administration will provide all MPs with an iPhone and is contemplating the iPad too.
http://computersweden.idg.se/2.2683/1.374392/riksdagen-satsar-pa-apple
Down here in Christchurch, NZ, the Earthquake Commission is currently undertaking a preliminary inspection of every house in the city to assess damage from the 22 February earthquake.
I was out when the assessor called, but my wife told me that the guy who visited our house (which sustained only minor damage) recorded everything on an iPad.
He commented that, if the previous user (evidently, they pass them on to the next shift) had failed to recharge the battery, he was sometimes forced to revert to pen and paper, which was so much slower. Overall, he was delighted with it.
iPads, it seems, are everywhere.
But not yet iPad 2’s. Not in Auckland, anyway. Glad your home sustained only limited damage.
Nope, no iPad 2’s in Godzone yet, apart from a few on Trade Me. I think I’ll take the plunge when they get here. High time to retire the iBook G3.
Thanks re the damage. A few houses in our neighbourhood are write-offs, but we were lucky.
I was at a meeting the other day… and half of us had iPads.
Jesus, did you bring the pork chops?
What’s that make, about 6 iPads? What with Judas Iscariot being gone and all…
Which Bible app do you prefer. I like YouVersion, but I also use Paul Avery’s sometimes.
When I get my ipad 2 next week it will be my main mac for work.
My old mac laptop is history.
The ipad does everything I need to do that I do on my laptop.
For the record I’m a creative consultant with my own design and marketing agency.
I would like to use my iPad for more business uses but I can never seem to tear it away from
my 2 year-old. I guess there’s one drawback to having an OS that’s so easy to use.
You could always buy a 2nd one 🙂
Wife won’t let me. Just got a MBP.
I take my iPad to work all the time, but I refuse to do any company work on it. I paid for it, it’s for my use, not theirs.
Seems to me you’re only hurting yourself on that one. If you itemize your tax deductions, deduct the percentage use for work and you get the productivity benefits as well.
A lot of companies won’t allow personal devices on their networks.
The $0.30 I’m going to get back in my Taxes isn’t worth the hassle of the paperwork to get it.
Unfortunately I work for the government. Our IT people won’t let us buy iPads because they say the ‘public’ thinks we will only use them to play games and to listen to music. Odd ly enough there is a pilot project to allow ministers to use them. I guess the public is ok with our Top officials using them to play their games and to listen to their music.
Or look at gay porn and book rent boys when they are away from home.
Gota love pokiticisns.
Politricks.
I work in education… not as a teacher but in the government administration part of it… we are seeing an interesting thing with iOS devices. People are bringing them to work even if they are not supported at their school or office. They are accessing their own networks and using them also for business, and there is little an IT department can do to stop it. It’s bringing on another shift in the paradigm I suppose. Enterprise will have to deal with personal devices in the workplace if they don’t adopt these technologies. It is just too expensive to follow people around to try to eliminate them, and it is counterproductive anyway. Just discipline the people who do stupid stuff on the job, no matter if it is with a computer or a telephone. Transparency is more feasible than control in many cases.
.
How about bringing some jobs back to the good old USA, Apple???