Tablets turn heads, but when it’s time to get work done, corporations are still showing their love for the laptop. Bruce Smith is feeling some tablet pressure. As director of computing services for Cummins Inc., Smith helps the company’s 40,000 employees get the right computers for their jobs.

1. 08/09/2011 04:50
blog.bestlaptopbattery.co.uk
Sorry, tablets. Laptops still dominate the
enterprise | Laptop Usage Tips
Sorry, tablets. Laptops still dominate the That’s one win for the laptop. But will it be a short-
enterprise | Laptop Usage Tips term victory?
Tablets turn heads, but when it’s time to get work Already tablets are taking over many of the mobile
done, corporations are still showing their love for computing duties in the consumer market. Now, IT
the laptop. leaders say they’re seeing those same consumers
come to work expecting to use them in the office.
Bruce Smith is feeling some tablet pressure. As
director of computing services for Cummins Inc., But as tech managers examine whether tablets can
Smith helps the company’s 40,000 employees get really do the job that laptops have been doing suc-
the right computers for their jobs. cessfully for many years, most are finding that ta-
blets aren’t quite capable, says Ali Tehrani, director
of engineering at Presidio Networked Solutions, part
of consulting firm Presidio Inc. in Greenbelt, Md.
For a majority of those em-
ployees, it’s a desktop PC. For Sales figures show Smith’s continued support of the
mobile professionals, it’s a lap- laptop is shared by others. According to research
top. Select employees, such as firm Gartner Inc., there were more than 204 million
engineers, get both a laptop and laptops shipped worldwide in 2010, compared with
a workstation capable of high-capacity computing. 17.6 million tablets sold to end users. Sales in both
categories are expected to rise in 2011 and 2012,
Now there’s a new possibility on the horizon. Smith with laptops projected to continue dominating.
says lately he’s been getting more and more requests Gartner estimates nearly 233 million laptops will
from workers throughout the organization, from ship in 2011, while nearly 70 million tablets will
executives to HR, to deviate from the standard selec- be bought by consumers and businesses. In 2012,
tion and bring tablets into the mix at the Columbus, 276 million laptops are expected to ship vs. sales of
Ind.-based company, which designs, manufactures, 108.2 million tablets.
distributes and services engines and related tech-
nologies.
So far he has said no.
“We don’t yet deliver or support any kind of tablet,”
joliprint
Smith says, explaining that he can’t justify supplying
workers with tablets instead of laptops because, in
his opinion, they don’t deliver any more value or
efficiency than laptops.
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2. 08/09/2011 04:50
blog.bestlaptopbattery.co.uk
Sorry, tablets. Laptops still dominate the enterprise | Laptop Usage Tips
Where tablets fall short (with the notable exception of BlackBerry and its
BlackBerry Enterprise Server software).
Even when companies develop their own security
and support around tablets, many find that workers
still require laptops for their full-size screens, physi-
cal keyboards and higher computing functionality,
Tehrani says.
That leaves companies facing the choice of either
buying yet another computing device for employees
or saying no altogether. “Our clients don’t see [ta-
blets] as replacing laptops and desktops. They see
them as augmenting them, just like the BlackBerry
doesn’t replace your laptop,” he says.
“This is pretty much the beginning of the beginning,”
Daoud says. “We haven’t seen major announcements
or deployments yet, because almost all of the tablet
industry in general has been focused on the consu-
mer and ‘prosumer’ market — the small business or
Tony Young, CIO at Informatica Corp. in Redwood executive. But there’s been clearly a lot of demand
City, Calif., which specializes in data integration, says in the enterprise space.”
about 90% of the computers used by the company’s
2,200 employees are laptops. The remaining 10% Enterprise software companies are investing in
are high-end desktops used by engineers who need developing applications specifically designed for
maximum computing power. business uses on tablet devices, he points out, citing
key players like SAP, GE Healthcare and Siemens.
Young says he expects those figures to stay that way
for the foreseeable future, because laptops offer the But for now, “you see the executive suite using the
functionality and power required by employees, par- iPad, but not any substantial business applications
ticularly the sales staff. “We sell enterprise software, being used,” he says. “There will be classes of mobile
and you can’t demo it on an iPad,” he says. workers who will be a prime target when these key
players move forward with business applications
When employees request a tablet, Young asks and a value proposition that makes sense [for en-
whether it will help them do a better job or make terprise organizations]. But we’re not there yet.”
more sales. “They answer no. There’s not an ROI.
A tablet doesn’t move that needle,” he says. Some manufacturers, such as BlackBerry-maker
joliprint
Research In Motion, are moving forward with
Beyond ROI, Tehrani says, companies are still more business applications — but don’t expect any
struggling with how best tosecure tablets and the breakthroughs anytime soon.
corporate data on them, as they don’t come with
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enterprise-level support and security applications
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3. 08/09/2011 04:50
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Sorry, tablets. Laptops still dominate the enterprise | Laptop Usage Tips
“The business sector will see growing interest pro- Francisco-based company, which employs 36,400
bably as early as next year with Microsoft’s possible people worldwide.
release of Windows 8. Microsoft has been solidly
entrenched in the [enterprise] sector and is likely In addition to desktops, McKesson has 16,000 laptops
to want to stimulate a solid apps market. But that deployed and supports about 3,000 tablets, about
would happen in a couple of years’ time frame.” half of which are supplied by the company and the
other brought in by employees themselves, Spratt
For now, companies will continue to favor laptops says.
for workers with mobile needs, he says, noting
that many large companies continue to choose Spratt says company policy allows employees, wor-
desktops over both types of mobile devices be- king with their managers, to determine whether
cause they’re cheaper and last longer. “We still they need a desktop or some type of mobile PC —
see a large number of companies where desktops either a laptop or tablet.
account for 60% to 70% of their base,” he says.
For managers, the key is to determine which workers
are better served by laptops and which would do
well with tablets, he says.
“There are those who fundamentally need to read
information and those who need to create informa-
tion,” he says. “If you’re primarily reading, then I
see people making great use of iPads and iPhones.
The mobility, the instant-on, the lightweight nature
and the network accessibility — wherever you are
— are great features that make these great for infor-
mation users. But for information creators, they’re
less useful.”
Spratt himself is case in point. He has an iPad 2, a
Information readers vs. creators laptop and a Kindle. “So I’m picking the best tool
for the particular need,” he says, adding that he
At McKesson Corp., a Fortune 500 healthcare ser- also uses a desktop for its higher performance and
vices and IT company, the desktop still reigns su- big screen.
preme, with laptops holding their own and tablets
beginning to gain a tiny toe-hold.
“There are many workers who just have desk-
tops. We have a significant population that have
joliprint
no need for mobile computing — nonexempt wor-
kers, administrative workers whose primary job
is keyboarding during the day,” says Randy Spratt,
executive vice president, CIO and CTO at the San
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4. 08/09/2011 04:50
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Sorry, tablets. Laptops still dominate the enterprise | Laptop Usage Tips
Laptop or tablet? Both please! Macomber and other IT managers say tablets today
are in equal parts appealing and limited for corpo-
rate business use. “The tablet is ultra-transportable,
requires no boot time, has none of the [technical]
problems that laptops have and so far no real virus
threats, which is all great,” Macomber notes.
But it has limitations, too, he says, including limi-
ted robust core application availability, lack of sto-
rage expandability, cumbersome access to stored
network data and a dependence on third-party
support channels.
For now, the laptop remains the winner in most
enterprises. But its days as victor may be numbe-
red. Industry analysts and IT leaders predict that
the laptop and the tablet will eventually meld, with
the best of each influencing the other as the designs
evolve.
Indeed, the use of multiple devices is the emerging “Give it two years from now,” Daoud says. “You’ll see
trend among many enterprises, which are commit- a morphing of the two products so the distinction
ted to laptops for most mobile functions while still is very difficult to make.”
exploring the potential of tablets.
See also:
At the University of Pennsylvania, Mark Aseltine,
executive director of technology support services,
says the university’s IT department is analyzing what
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Macomber himself uses an iPad for email, task ma-
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nagement, note-taking and more, but acknowledges
that it’s a personal, rather than enterprise-driven,
preference. “It has made a difference in how I work,
but I have also had users sell their tablets and return
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to a laptop.”
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