Really when I say tablet I mean iPad. There are Android tablets out there but they are junk in my opinion. There are Windows tablets out there but they a bulky. They do however have most of the things companies want like Active Directory support.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my iPad. There are just some thing that apple really didn’t think about the iPad when it comes to businesses. Unfortunately Apple has never really listen to businesses because they think they know what is best for everyone.
These items in this list are not any particular order.
- Can’t authenticate or have a single sign on using something like Active directory.
- Ending support on a device after 3 years is crazy! Did you know you can’t get any more updates on the first iPhone?
- Pretty pricey considering all the enterprise things you can’t do with them.
- Terrible for entering data
- Very shiny. You might have to make the screen bright to read anything
- Have you ever looked at the screen for finger prints? I bet you can guess what the person’s password is.
- If you make the screen bright the battery life goes from Great to OK
- Each iPad can ONLY be synced with one computer at a time.
- You have to have at least 1 Credit card associated with EACH iPad/itunes account. What company would give that out!
- Putting files onto the iPad is not easy because there is no input mechanism other than iTunes
- You have to install iTunes on at least one computer
- No way to centrally manage the iPad.
- If someone puts a password on a device, resetting the password can be a pain in the but if they forget it. Can’t do it remotely.
- You have to get a case for each iPad. They scratch very easily
- Constantly cleaning the finger prints off screen
- Installing extra apps on the device to read PDFs. By default you can’t read PDFs
- Can’t play Flash
- Can’t print
- Charging Chord is ridiculously short. Can’t charge iPad unless off on most PCs.
- Can’t easily connect to network Shares to get to documents
- Can’t encrypt the device
The iPad is an entertainment device and not an enterprise device. It never will be an Enterprise level device unless they address #’s 1,2,4,6,8,9,10,11,12,13,16,18,20, 21
I am hoping Blackberry will allow companies to centrally manage their Playbooks when it comes out. Currently admins use BES to control everything about the Blackberries. That is the reason why RIM dominates the enterprise smartphone sector. If Apple doesn’t come up with something like that I can’t see them really making any REAL headway into the enterprise.