An Application of iPad

I really hate the timing of this post, but the ideas are fresh in my head. You can consider this ‘just another iPad post’ if you want.

Ever taken a survey on the streets from someone with a PC style tablet? I’ve taken a few. I’m always surprised by the hardware choice. For some things, it seems like a clipboard and paper would be better.

At work, there is an upcoming project that involves something like the above. Here is why I think the iPad is a better choice. It mostly comes down to boring IT Operations reasons, aka management of the underlying platform.

  • With iPad, you never have to defragment your disk.
  • With iPad, you never have to run antivirus or update antivirus definitions.
  • With iPad, you never have to run anitspyware or update antispyware definitions.
  • With iPad, there is no moving and spinning disk which is prone to higher failure.
  • With iPad, you don’t have to worry about some slick-kid or script kiddie downloading and installing some crazy software that turns your computer into a bot or even just overwrites important files preventing you from booting the next time.
  • With iPad, you don’t have to worry about not having a replacement part available if a piece of hardware fails.
  • With iPad, the user will have a more familiar experience. Given the prevalence of iPhone, it is likely that an end user will understand many of the touch and drag gestures.
  • With iPad, there is no stylus like the PC Tablets of old.
  • With iPad, there is a very clear future. When was the last time apple canceled a product line? Newton? Ok, how about under Jobs? I’ve no idea.

I’m as anti-fud as any person that I know. Yes, the above is definitely anti-windows fud cited by Mac and Linux lovers everywhere and normally I’m the first person to refute it. However, I think under that fud there are tiny grains of truth. For certain applications those bits of truth are highly amplified. It is a different risk vector. These things become very important and translate directly to cost of ownership.

Notice that I’ve listed no pros or cons for iPad as a general purpose device. I don’t care to go there. I’ve also not mentioned if there is much of a market for the above use case (there isn’t enough to sustain the device alone). These are all things to be answered elsewhere. My point in short: here is a use case if you have been wondering for what kind of things iPad can be used.