Studies Show Businesses Embracing iPad

Recent studies show that many businesses are adopting or piloting iPad, partly because its a flexible, attractive device. By way of contrast, recent word out of Hewlett-Packard suggests its new HP Slate, a supposed iPad competitor, is really more for specific enterprise applications rather than general-purpose computing.

"Although the Apple tablet been available for just seven months, the iPad is being strongly embraced by businesses, particularly financial services, health care, technology, and legal providers, say three separate enterprise surveys. A big reason is the iPad's ability to be both a general-purpose device like a computer and a highly managed special-purpose device like an appliance, notes Brian Reed, chief marketer at Boxtone, a mobile management provider that surveyed 1,200 enterprises on iPad usage.

Steve Wastie, product development VP at mobile connectivity management provider iPass, notes that iPass's survey of 1,100 customers showed that 13 percent already have iPads in use (mainly brought in by employees) and two-thirds expect iPads and similar devices to replace (27 percent) or supplement (39 percent) the laptop as their primary computing device."