Pragmatism got you down?
After suffering this article from stem to stern, it should be noted that tablets are not a new technology. While kudos go to Steve for the ooh-aah factor surrounding the release of the IPad, the factor has faded, the competition has shown up, and IT has been classifying these tools, just like any other item in the IT arsenal.
Fast and Light - (and pricey)
A netbook with a six cell battery and a SSD drive can be had for about the same price as the low end IPad. These netbooks boot as fast and run as long. Plus, in addition to accessing email and all things "cloud", they run Windows and thus Windows-based, vertical-market software natively. In addition, you can take the netbook and quickly attach it to the far end of that 100 meter ethernet run to see if there is any signal out there before breaking out the test equipment.
BTW, "Chained to a desktop" is a believable concept, "chained to laptops" sounds a little goofy.
Collaboration 2.0
In a meeting, Sharepoint has nothing on Teamviewer and an electronic whiteboard. As far as a barrier, one has to lift a tablet to get it to a proper viewing angle. Unless reference is given to some widely available survey, the phrase 'in most companies' should never appear in these blogs because it is more often than not simply presumptuous. In my experience, while the origination of an idea and the finishing touches are often applied in person, in groups, the detailed creative work takes place in the solitude of individual offices and cubicles.
Laptop Replacement
(Again with the "the majority of workers in most companies" line) It might surprise some people that the majority of workers in most companies either don't use computers at all or use embedded computers which produce data the user never accesses. In many situations tablet adoption is going to have to wait for vertical software to find it's way to the cloud - public or private. Which means it is going to have to wait for security and regulatory concerns to be addressed. As for the rest of this topic, I'm guessing you've never heard of MSPs. You should really check out this section of the IT market.
Gauging Relevance
Again, tablets are not new technology. I will dare say most inexcusably ignorant IT personnel have been adapting our infrastructures in the almost two years since the frenzied release of the original IPad. Through this experience we have learned tablets are just another tool. And, helping our clients and employers to view them as such has, and will, save most organizations a lot of time and money.
