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Buying tablets for business? The iPad or Windows RT dilemma
Summary: Looking to buy tablets to roll out to your business? Now that Windows RT is off and running, is that a better bet than the iPad...?
By Matt Baxter-Reynolds for Post-PC Developments
October 18, 2012 -- 08:50 GMT (01:50 PDT)
The floodgates are almost open - we can buy Surface tablets running Windows RT today, and very soon we'll be able to buy Windows RT tablets from the other vendors.
Question is - if you're buying them for business, which one do you buy?
Buying for yourself
Let's say you have $600 burning a hole on your pocket and you're desperate to buy a tablet today to take into work, BYOD-style. What do you buy?
I'd love to say to you "buy a Windows RT tablet -- such as Surface", but I can't. You should buy an iPad. It's pretty difficult to be disappointed buying an iPad, especially when you consider quality, reliability, and availability of apps.
We're not going to know about the quality and reliability of Windows RT devices for months. We need actual humans to be using both the Surface device and those from Microsfot partners in order to make a judgement and allow problems to shake out. Similarly with apps, the count is not great at the moment -- 4,326 apps globally is all you get to choose from. And, although it's easy and glib for me to say, most that are there are pretty rubbishy. (Expect a deeper dive into this topic soon.) This will get better, but it's just getting started.
Buying for a business
Oddly though, if you need to buy fifty, a few hundred, or a even several thousand tablets to give to staff, it might make sense to move on Windows RT rather than iPad. Maybe don't sign the PO today, but soon.
Let's break it down.
see full report
The article is full of holes and supposition/guesswork.
No one has had enough time using the Surface RT to make the comments he is making.
Lack of RT apps, I would have to agree, hopefully they will grow. This may be a real issue in the beginning.
Well that's the main problem. Everything now is supposition rather then fact as far as this or that. But then buying a Sylvania model with the embedded wasn't any picnic either as it turns out.
Why is that? The settings are limited unlike a regular preinstalled OS you would typically see on a desktop, laptop, or netbook. The version of IE was found to be outdated and won't allow you to log into things like doing your online banking. No javascript support as well as other things simply ending up being an internet book but far too limited.
The RT on the other hand is the all new animal hardly anyone but OEM developers, paid MSDN and TechNet subscribers, and a hand full of others in short number have had any actual time working with. As far as the apps with anything new that always takes time. Seeing full office wares on Tablet is another story entirely there.
What about Windows 8 pro tablets?
What about the 10.1" , 32GB Toshiba Thrive tablet where you can root it to your own liking?
Came with HC and now have ICS running and it was only $300.00 at the time.
Waiting for our Developers to make JB and they are getting close in their development. IMHO
Dennis
Well that was more a general statement simply to point out the limited numbers of people who would have had any chances at all to have a look prior to the RT launch if you want to call it that.
If you were involved in the testing phases whether MS employed or not such as 3rd party developers or independent testers doing work for MS then you likely would have on the other hand to some extent since the RT is an embedded OS not one you find preinstalled which falls into a different OS catagory there.
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