“Estimates suggest that there are a lot of crusty old beige-box PCs out there, with some 600 million of them over five years old,” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes writes for ZDNet. “Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said that this was ‘sad,’ and that he’d like to see them taken out of service and replaced with shiny new iPad Pro tablets.”
“There’s little doubt that an iPad Pro can be set up to carry out most tasks that a five-year-old PC might be doing, whether that’s running a spreadsheet application, being used to send and receive email, or whatever. That’s the easy part,” Kingsley-Hughes writes. “And by combining an iPad Pro with a keyboard and the stylus, I’m certain that someone could become just as proficient at doing most PC tasks on the iPad Pro.”
“The hardware is all there. The app ecosystem is all there (Apple is now even offering iPad buyers the chance to grab a copy of Office 365 at the checkout). It just needs corporate IT departments the world over to decide to make the switch,’ Kingsley-Hughes writes. “Is enterprise ready to start replacing Windows machines with iOS devices?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Not places with old blood IT doofuses still clinging to their jobs, building their roadblocks, stifling progress, who think Swift is a young pop music singer, but there is plenty of new blood coming online now in IT departments worldwide. Windows is an anachronism.
SEE ALSO:
This is a big deal: Inside the Apple and IBM partnership to help enterprise customers build more iOS apps – February 24, 2016
IBM just gave Apple even more enterprise credibility – February 23, 2016
Apple Inc., the enterprise IT company – December 15, 2015
Tim Cook: Apple’s enterprise business is already at $25 billion annually – September 29, 2015
Apple’s surprising new passion: The enterprise – September 9, 2015
The Apple+Cisco deal may change the world – not just the enterprise – September 1, 2015
Apple aims to boost enterprise iPad and iPhone sales with new Cisco partnership – August 31, 2015
Apple and Cisco partner to deliver fast lane for iOS enterprise users – August 31, 2015
Apple+IBM: Enterprise apps go wearable on Apple Watch – May 24, 2015
Apple+IBM’s MobileFirst strikes iPhone and iPad app partnership with China Telecom – April 2, 2015
Apple+IBM add 8 powerful new MobileFirst enterprise apps for iPad and iPhone – April 1, 2015
Apple+IBM partnership is more than a simple hardware distribution deal – February 28, 2015
UBS: Apple+IBM partnership set to expand – February 9, 2015
Apple+IBM: Apple spoils early, Big Blue’s later? – February 2, 2015
Apple+IBM seize the mobile moment to energize enterprise software – December 29, 2014
Businesses and schools need to switch entirely to Apple.
Drop all the outdated (Microsucks) products and give us a more productive future!
In a word, no. And the MDN take is one again as misinformed as a neocon.
Much as I love Apple products this overlooks many methodologies and ways of working for office workers and the iPad Pro will not satisfy the needs of many offices who need to anchor their computers securely and not have iPad Pro’s flopping about freely. Better to move to Macs in general. iPad Pro’s to those who can best make use of it’s capabilities.
If the concern is about theft, that’s what device management is for. You can simply look up where the device is and brick it if it goes where it shouldn’t.
I don’t think it would look pretty putting an iPad Pro in some kind of locked desk harness. Frankly it just isn’t going to happen, not with much better alternatives and specific methods for specific tasks. Desktops, portable, mobile devices all have their uses and logical applications. It’s more than about theft. It’s more about the right tool for the right job.
As often happens, people on this forum fail to read each other’s comments properly and make poor assumptions about what the other guy is saying.
In the middle ages, books were so valuable that they were chained to the shelves out of a fear that someone would steal them. In modern times, we chain desktop computers to desks out of a fear that someone will steal them. Do you think that computers are so valuable now that every single one needs to be ‘chained’ to a desk? Can you not imagine the electronic solution that scott was describing? There is a young vibrant world out there that are not afraid to life and change.
I’m sure most aren’t chained to a desk. Neither are they able to be tucked into your briefcase, under your arm or bag and walk out the door. Young and vibrant world is great, huge small devices disappearing from the job site not. As long as people are people companies must still be vigilant about theft. To consider otherwise is being foolish. i’d suggest you take a real reality check on that Utopia Man.
MDN is right, the IT doofuses are barring the doors trying to protect their Windows-only kingdoms. But the savages are storming the castle with the Apple devices in tow. It is only a matter of time before the castle walls are breached and the Windows kingdom is gone forever.
Apple’s not ready for enterprise business! For example:
– Macs cannot search data on network servers…
– Buying software from Apple is a joke…
– Support for enterprise is weak…
I don’t believe Apple will ever be ready. More important, Apple doesn’t see a need to jump in.
Hmmm. I guess my enterprise supported, software stuffed, data searching iMac is a figment of my imagination. /s
How did you get your iMac running iOS, the topic of the article?
Surprisingly, I agree with you. But not for ANY of the reasons you cite.
iOS needs a modern intelligent file system. Not like Windows, because that system has deep flaws too, which people have learned to work around for the last few decades. iOS filing system needs to become a true relational database with built in file naming, searching and sorting capabilities. Apple has the internal talent to do this. But I suspect they’re at war with each other over how to implement it because it will fundamentally change the way people work with large numbers of files.
Microsoft Windows is deader than a deceased comedy parrot. Ten years from now, the only places still running it will be retro tech museums and a few sentimental old-timer social clubs for lifelong basement dwellers.
Unfortunately, a lot of school systems (and businesses) still go with “well, this is cheaper than what Apple makes….we can get more of them for less.” They don’t bother looking at TOC or maintenance.
Looking at TOC and maintenance is one of the main reasons Chromebooks are overtaking iPads in K-12.
Sure, if the type of work you do can be handled by an operating system which is missing half the features of a full OS.
I can’t, and probably never will. And anyone who needs to print anything sensible can’t either. That eliminates most people in an office.
Printer companies have apps that when installed give you access to full print functions. Apple’s print function provides the AirPrint and basic printing.
Correct.
The real enemy is ALWAYS ignorance.
Depends on your business. Most business stuff doesn’t really need the portability that consumers think would be attractive. Paying a premium to have a thin device with less processing power and new affiliated hardware plust software learning curves (don’t underestimate employee retraining, even for Apple stuff!) makes no sense. Speed reliabilty and support all trump thin flat fashion.
I can also attest from personal experience with a home HP printer that Wireless printing has been flaky at best when it does work. We solved the problem by going back to wired printing.
I get that. Just installed an Epson Artisan 1430; the wireless connection was NOT a convenience.
Unfortunately, enterprise won’t be able to switch until the Apple’s Mail on both OSes (Mac and iOS) becomes more robust and handles groups better than it does now. On the iOS devices, you can’t select a group and have it fill in all the recipients. You have to select each contact one at a time. On both systems, contacts with more than one email address will have only one address used in group distro and you can’t set the default address. If you want to use both addresses, you have to add an additional card. The only Microsoft software I actually like is Outlook. The Mac version just doesn’t cut it.
Why doesn’t MDN apply Bettridge’s Law to this article?
MDN has to stop insulting multi-platform computer users and start realizing why the landscape is the way it is. If Apple doesn’t support the pros, the pros will leave — some ditching the Mac altogether, others like us living with a foot in each world.
It would do MDN some good to see how the rest of the planet lives. It’s not all bad, and not all good. Just a different religion, and high priest SteveJack is simply ignorant of all the many ways that people in the world find it unreasonable to rid themselves of MS. Even if they want to, which many don’t.
In our case, Windows isn’t preferred, but it’s the only cost effective way to use a lot of world’s most effective professional software. We have no alternative. Windows 7 ain’t bad if you have a competent admin. Probably has less issues than we’ve had with OS X 10.7 through today, actually.
Hundreds of specialised programs you just can’t find a Mac equivalent. Even if you use Mac hardware, to be competitive and compatible with the industry, you gotta use those Windows programs. Count yourself lucky if your job is truly platform-agnostic.
Also, nobody has a full replacement for MS Outlook, MS Word, and MS Excel after all these years. Not even close. If you don’t need all the capabilites of the defacto standard office suite, good for you. Some of us need it. In fact, we had to use Windows versions for a while when Office for the Mac lagged behind.
Apple needs to get serious about attracting more Mac software developers. I think the poor implementation of the Mac App Store actually pushed away premium software makers. Apple’s shitty excuse for professional software and just letting programs like Aperture die is stupid. Once burnt, it will be hard for Apple to gain the trust of those users again.
… Sometimes yes. But again iOS is only ‘professional’ at some things. Replacing a Windows tablet with an iPad? Damned straight! But desktop Windows with an iOS device? Only sometimes yes. Otherwise, get real. The stranglehold of Windows on any business approaching enterprise level is frightening to behold. Those decrepit old beige Windows workstations have their claws deep into a lot of business applications. Avert your eyes.