3 ms·

Working for a company that serves big pharma, I have the following observations: The iPad is the game changer for the mobile worker (pharma reps). Companies ar

Working for a company that serves big pharma, I have the following observations: The iPad is the game changer for the mobile worker (pharma reps). Companies are taking away their sales reps MS laptops/tablets and replacing them with iPads. Why? 1., Unbreakable compared to classic hardware. Both in hardware as in software. No moving parts, light, powerful enough, so easy to use that reps can't claim anymore to be baffled by it. Cheap. No enterprise MS tablet PC comes close. 2., Far lower TCO, as the IT overhead is far lower. Virus Scanners? Custom OS images? Gone. A fully controlled, curated environment. Even if a user installs something, it will not break the system or steal your data. If an iPad gets stolen/lost, remote wipe and buy a new one. Log in, restore, done. Apple suddenly allows for bring your own hardware - the wet dream of enterprise IT. 3., Completely homogenic hardware, globally. This is the most important point. Wherever you buy an iPad, from Brazil to Korea, it is exactly the same. Same hardware, same OS. With notebooks? Lenovo, HP, Dell. And they change their models all the time, warranting a new driver here, a different OS image there. 4., The death of Blackberry is on the wall, making the iPhone the natural successor - for the above points. Now, what about the MacBooks and iMacs? Looking at my company, once the iPad is in, those follow. If the majority of users is on iOS, there are no benefits of being on Windows. Most admins like Unix-style anyhow, and OSX is a great UI for that. Managers are the ones left, and here the MacBook Air is gaining traction. It is sleek, light, and works. Plus, IT can standardize on it. Also, as people create slide decks, Keynote is seriously cool shit. Those presentations work seamlessly on iPad, whereas PPT breaks. Strong incentive there to switch. The last big footholds of MS in the Office are Excel and Outlook. But both are available on OSX, and some argue in better shape than their Windows brethren. The biggest gap of Apple is Excel on the iPad. Whoever releases a fully compatible iOS Excel version/clone will accelerate the demise of MS in enterprise desktops. Servers are completely different discussion, the MS Exchange/Sharepoint/Dynamics/SQL Server behemoth is here to stay. This battleground will shift due to SaaS.

johngalt 15y ago
5., Apple convinced people to pay enough to get good equipment. An IT department implementing anything PC based is constantly fighting against the $300 acer netbooks on the shelves of the local best buy. Management will cut corners on a PC.
EnderMB 15y ago
> 4., The death of Blackberry is on the wall, making the iPhone the natural successor - for the above points. I can't speak for the pharmaceutical industry in America, but from what I've noticed in the financial industry in the UK a lot of people are ditching their Blackberry's and are moving to either Android or, surprisingly, WP7. One of the large financial services companies I've worked with is switching all of its employees to WP7 this year, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is where Microsoft find their area.
- Duff 15y ago
  WP7 is probably a good choice if you're a big Microsoft dev shop and are actively developing custom tools. I've been told that development for WP7 is pretty easy for existing .Net programmers. All of this is great news for the industry -- a robust market is a good thing.

johngalt 15y ago

5., Apple convinced people to pay enough to get good equipment. An IT department implementing anything PC based is constantly fighting against the $300 acer netbooks on the shelves of the local best buy. Management will cut corners on a PC.

EnderMB 15y ago

> 4., The death of Blackberry is on the wall, making the iPhone the natural successor - for the above points. I can't speak for the pharmaceutical industry in America, but from what I've noticed in the financial industry in the UK a lot of people are ditching their Blackberry's and are moving to either Android or, surprisingly, WP7. One of the large financial services companies I've worked with is switching all of its employees to WP7 this year, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is where Microsoft find their area.

Duff 15y ago
WP7 is probably a good choice if you're a big Microsoft dev shop and are actively developing custom tools. I've been told that development for WP7 is pretty easy for existing .Net programmers. All of this is great news for the industry -- a robust market is a good thing.