Apple iPad A Work Machine? Survey Says Yes!
When you think of Apple's iPad, you probably think of a large iPod
touch, or maybe a portable e-mail machine for your couch. Or maybe you
think of something that you'd love to have if it only supported Flash
and Hulu. Or maybe you think it'd be a great replacement for a netbook.
But would you consider it seriously for work?
That's the question that a Sybase survey recently asked, and evidently more people than not consider that the iPad would be useful for helping them to get work done. That's sort of amazing to us; one of the biggest issues we saw on the iPad was the inability to multi-task, despite the fact that it has a 1GHz processor. We understand that some light-duty work tasks could be done by using one app at a time, but do you remember how up in arms everyone was when Windows 7 Starter was announced with a 3-app-at-a-time limit? Even 3 at a time got people all sorts of upset, so why is Apple getting a pass here with enabling just one app at a time?
It's possible that the survey pool was simply too small, or the definition of "conducting work" was left to the imagination. According to the survey, over half (52.3%) admitted that they were looking forward to the iPad's ability to help them get work done, with just under half (48.2%) saying they can't wait to watch multi-media on it. Another interesting point was that only 4.4% of those polled were "not familiar" with the device. That's astounding. If you polled a random group of people and asked if they knew about the new Eee PC or MSI motherboard, we're guessing well over 1/4th of those people were be unaware what you were talking about. Apple has clearly done an excellent job marketing the iPad, and while we still aren't convinced that it is really cut out for work, we'll see if the next version of iPhone OS opens up multi-tasking. And then, we just might agree.
That's the question that a Sybase survey recently asked, and evidently more people than not consider that the iPad would be useful for helping them to get work done. That's sort of amazing to us; one of the biggest issues we saw on the iPad was the inability to multi-task, despite the fact that it has a 1GHz processor. We understand that some light-duty work tasks could be done by using one app at a time, but do you remember how up in arms everyone was when Windows 7 Starter was announced with a 3-app-at-a-time limit? Even 3 at a time got people all sorts of upset, so why is Apple getting a pass here with enabling just one app at a time?
It's possible that the survey pool was simply too small, or the definition of "conducting work" was left to the imagination. According to the survey, over half (52.3%) admitted that they were looking forward to the iPad's ability to help them get work done, with just under half (48.2%) saying they can't wait to watch multi-media on it. Another interesting point was that only 4.4% of those polled were "not familiar" with the device. That's astounding. If you polled a random group of people and asked if they knew about the new Eee PC or MSI motherboard, we're guessing well over 1/4th of those people were be unaware what you were talking about. Apple has clearly done an excellent job marketing the iPad, and while we still aren't convinced that it is really cut out for work, we'll see if the next version of iPhone OS opens up multi-tasking. And then, we just might agree.
