Tablets are Gaining Momentum in Business

There’s a push in the race for Tablet market share as manufacturers roll out yet another capability to address the laptop/ netbook/ tablet space. This is good for business as we get real functionality at an attractive price. But will the Tablet gain a lot of market share?

When Cisco introduced their Tablet for business this summer, we realized the race was on in trying to capture market share for business-use devices outside the norm of laptops and desktops. This is another example of the evolution for not only a more mobile working environment but also a trend to more mobile computing. It reminds us of business people who were tied to their desk with big business phones versus the mobile way of doing business today. With Tablets, we are seeing people break away from Cat5 cable.

We need to be mindful, however, that it is the end-user who will be adopting these new devices, and the way they do business- or want to do business- will largely determine the growth in market share that the tablets will realize over the next few years. When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, he said that it is “better than the laptop, better than the smartphone”. No surprise here except for the wait in seeing how Big Business would use this tablet as a business tool. With what we’ve been reading, up to half of Corporate America is evaluating the iPad in determining how this new tool can help them do business better.

When John Chambers announced the Cisco Cius last month, the key to this tablet is the suite of Cisco software products that it will run. The list includes Cisco Quad, Show and Share, WebEx, Presence and Cisco TelePresence; it also supports Unified Communications Manager. It looks like these apps will run as modified Android applications. This is great if you are a Cisco shop, but for small business maybe not so great.

Even Dell is in. The Dell Streak offers a combination of processor power, screen size, and design quality. It supports 3G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth but the photo, camcorder, and calling capabilities blur the boundaries between tablet and phone. And at a size of only 6 inches wide, 3.2 inches tall, and 0.35 inch thick, the Streak is nearly a third the size of Apple's iPad tablet, is it a big smartphone or a small tablet?

HP is also in the game with a Tablet introduced earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show by Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer. He introduced it as "something that's almost as portable as a phone and that's as powerful as a PC running Windows 7." It’s not because this was introduced at the consumer dominated show, but market reaction is that it will not be the Business Trojan horse to take the market.

What is the bottom line here? A few things- Yes, the Tablet will gain momentum in business. Yes, there will be some users who will give up their desktop or even laptop for the functionality they really need. And yes, there is a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) sales push, including no need for wires, that can cost-justify the investment. But the verdict is out on what the market share will be compared to traditional lap-tops and desktops.