The REAL tablet wars are about to start

[kaplin42]

Originally Posted by NewChief

I'm not in IT, and these were my exact thoughts. Do people really still think that only yuppie starbucks drinkers are rocking macs? That's kind of silly.

I am in IT. I completely hate apple as an enterprise solution. I find that it fights everything that we try and do. It's use it their way or not at all, which to me is the bonus of Windows, the versatility.

We have introduced 300+ New iPads 8 months ago. About 1/5 of our teachers have found a viable use for them other than a digital picture frame.

As a school, we want to go to a 1:1 next year for our students. There was a lot of desire to have iPads be that device. But there is just no way that it will work. It is so inconvenient to do anything of meaningful production on an iPad, it's not even funny.


With all that being said, while I will never support the idea of Apple in an enterprise setting, I will support the devices. To do otherwise is career suicide for IT. Like it or not, Apple is becoming more prevelant.

[HC_Chief]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

It's so far from the self-absorbed hipster image you have in your mind, that it makes you look a little out of touch. I've introduced hundreds of iPads into our ecosystem over the last few years. And not to snobby hipsters, but shiny suit executives. If you completely shun Apple these days, you're going to significantly limit yourself in the IT field.

I'm, of course, being facetious. Macs are great consumer tools but they are slllllllllloooooowwwwwww in making any real impact in the workplace. The iPad and iPhone are the two devices that are having the greatest traction. Iphone, because Blackberry is a PITA and Android is not secure. The iPad, due to form factor.

For most business work, you need coroporate communications (e.g. mail, messaging), Excel, Word, and Acrobat. You then have line of business applications that perform various functions. Apple products can, for the most part, connect & participate in the business world, but there is additional configuration that is needed, there is additional cost for the products themselves, and there are compatability hurdles that must be overcome. THis all means additional COST. To business, additional COST is bad. Business exists for profit; if they can do all the things they need to do using a PC laptop at .25 the price point of an Apple solution, you better believe that is what they are going to do.

Apple has been fantastic is marketing their products to the consumer world. Their devices are tailor-made to consumers. You have to modify their behavior & make concessions to make them a business-friendly device (exception being very basic stuff like running a small business; which I have done using a MacBook Pro).

The iPad form factor is nearly perfect. Problem is it's just a big iPod touch. While super cool, and it has untold potential, it is still limited by its focus on being the ultimate consumer tablet device. Kudos to Apple, they achieved that goal.

Business people are also consumers. They love their consumer platforms and want to use them at work; thus the rise in bring your own device (BYOD ) initiatives. The problem is integrating these devices that are not bult for integration, management, and business is a big challenge. Yes, it can be done, but it is not cheap. Again, business exists to make a profit. Yeah, it would be super neat to be able to do all your work on an iPad, but the cost of doing that is unjustifiable for most.

This is where the Surface comes in. It is a business device, running the desktop OS that runs all of the applications businesses already run, can be integrated and administrered like their existing platforms with no additional cost, AND provides the awesome form factor of the iPad. That is a winning proposition. That, of course, is in reference to the Surface Pro. The RT, on the other hand, is simple Microsoft's version of the iPad: a cool form factor for basic consumer needs, e.g. surfing the web, social media, checking web mail, Skype.

The cool thing about Surface is it's not a different OS from the desktop. Apple has OSX and iOS; they are distinct. Surface, the PC, laptop, and Phone all run W8. Consistent experience + integrated functionality + ability to use as both a business and consumer device; I think it's a great idea. Execution on that idea is the key; that's where Microsoft needs to be on their game. Now that the idea is out there, Google, Apple, Amazon, Samsung, and others will try to do the same thing. If they can execute more efficiently, we will all win as consumers. Nothing breeds excellence more than true competition.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

The ecosystem is changing fast. Over the last 5 years, all the upper level techs in my department have switched to Macs for their main system. Mainly because the majority of the executives at the top have switched to Mac. Supporting both PC and Mac is a requirement now, not a luxury. The Macs run OS X and Windows both, and that versatility makes them much more useful and worth the additional price.

It's so far from the self-absorbed hipster image you have in your mind, that it makes you look a little out of touch. I've introduced hundreds of iPads into our ecosystem over the last few years. And not to snobby hipsters, but shiny suit executives. If you completely shun Apple these days, you're going to significantly limit yourself in the IT field.

We have about 25000 iPad 2's in the field. They work great.

[HC_Chief]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

We have about 25000 iPad 2's in the field. They work great.

WOW, that is quite a deployment. Have you guys developed a case study/whitepaper on it? I know of several companies struggling with the concept; guidance and working examples would be beneficial to them.

[Fish]

It was initially difficult to implement OS X and iOS into our previously Windows only environment. We do everything on Exchange and Active Directory. But once it's set up it works very well. All of our Macs now authenticate to AD for login. I have scripts configured that automatically mount network shares depending on login name and location. We can image new machines, install software, and diagnose Mac machines all from a network boot. DeployStudio is awesome for this.

And if you're having trouble standardizing your enterprise iPads, definitely look into the Apple Configurator app. It will save you hours and hours of configuration, and let you keep all your iPads standardized and under your control. Don't just hand your users a fresh iPad and expect them to start being productive with them. That doesn't work at all in my experience. The large majority of users have completely unrealistic expectations and very little experience with getting any productivity out of an iPad. We've implemented a iPad Productivity program for new iPad users, which has worked wonders. It's been clear that users need to be shown how to use them correctly, before you introduce them to the user base.

The problem we've run into, is that many of the people requesting and using work funds to buy iPads, don't want to use them for anything except being a $500 web browser and e-mail portal. Which is a waste of funds.

[MOhillbilly]

Did Google put out a tablet? If so did the advertisement for the tablet have a sound track from the greatest speed metal album evah?

[HC_Chief]

Originally Posted by MOhillbilly

Did Google put out a tablet? If so did the advertisement for the tablet have a sound track from the greatest speed metal album evah?

That was unexpected... "Whoa, is that Raining Blood?"

[TribalElder]

The surface tablet is a clustered piece of shit

[kaplin42]

Originally Posted by TribalElder

The surface tablet is a clustered piece of shit

is it perfect, nope, but it isn't a pos either.

There re some pretty cool things about it.

[Braincase]

Originally Posted by kaplin42

is it perfect, nope, but it isn't a pos either.

There re some pretty cool things about it.

Hella easier to cut and paste between apps, that's for damned sure.

[Mr. Laz]

is the Nexus 7 any good?

[KCFalcon59]

Originally Posted by Laz

is the Nexus 7 any good?

I like it. Nice screen, fast, perfect size for the hand, light. I have the 16 GB. Only thing it lacks is an SD Card slot to expand the memory. Hence why I bought the 16. Now you can get the 32 GB for what the 16 GB used to cost. Can't go wrong with it. IMHO

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by KCFalcon59

I like it. Nice screen, fast, perfect size for the hand, light. I have the 16 GB. Only thing it lacks is an SD Card slot to expand the memory. Hence why I bought the 16. Now you can get the 32 GB for what the 16 GB used to cost. Can't go wrong with it. IMHO

how does it handle heavy content website?

full load flash sites etc

i know that android is part of that issue.

[KCFalcon59]

Originally Posted by Laz

how does it handle heavy content website?

full load flash sites etc

i know that android is part of that issue.

Well, Jelly Bean doesn't support flash. I occasionally run into sites where it pissed me off because I couldn't view the video. The heavy content sites load fast enough. I don't notice a problem where I have to wait a while for a page to load. It'd be better if it supported flash until flash died and went away, but that won't happen. I am sure it's a big deal for some, not so big of a deal for others.

Games and such work great. App updates download and install fast.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by KCFalcon59

Well, Jelly Bean doesn't support flash. I occasionally run into sites where it pissed me off because I couldn't view the video. The heavy content sites load fast enough. I don't notice a problem where I have to wait a while for a page to load. It'd be better if it supported flash until flash died and went away, but that won't happen. I am sure it's a big deal for some, not so big of a deal for others.

Games and such work great. App updates download and install fast.

you can install Dolphin HD and find flash for android out in the internet land.

it still runs flash

I have it installed on my Transformer Infinity with Jelly Bean


I thinking of getting a nexus 7 for someone for christmas. I just don't want to get one if it's a POS.