14 DAY TRIAL // Last month, Softpedia posted a report debating whether or not to believe the results of an analysis saying that Apple’s iPad was totally inappropriate for IT. Actually, we downright dismissed the idea, but we left a door open for commenters to express their own opinion on the subject. As it turns out, IT businesses are already planning to equip their staff with iPads the minute Apple ships them.
A report over at Businessweek reveals that Hilltop Consultants, a provider of information-technology services to law firms and other companies in the Washington (D.C.) area, has secured 15 iPad units. According to the company’s head, Jim Turner, the devices won’t be used for entertainment, but rather for business purposes.
"It's for business," Turner says, according to Businessweek, which quotes the Hilltop Consultants boss as saying that he'll use the tablet device for checking e-mail on the go, taking notes, and setting up client computer systems. In fact, according to Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co., many companies and their respective employees are buying the iPad to use it as a tool for business-related communications, in an attempt to keep productivity at high levels, while on the move.
"Clearly, the iPad has a role to play in the business market," Wolf explains. "The demand appears to be far more diverse than I originally expected," he adds. Wolf has a buy rating on Apple stock, according to the report.
A survey by Zogby International is also mentioned by Businessweek’s Olga Kharif, who reports on the study’s findings, saying, "More than half of mobile-phone users surveyed recently by Zogby International said they would use a tablet device such as the iPad for working outside the office." The study was commissioned by mobile-software maker Sybase.
And while some ordered an iPad to use the device to create graphics, such as Don Donofrio, a New York-based IT executive in the publishing industry, others took their time to make a pre-order because of loyalty to RIM’s BlackBerry, the report claims. However, given that, "[The iPad] is not going to run into the kind of resistance in the business market because it's a new category," analyst Charlie Wolf adds, "it could do better than the Mac or the iPhone," as far as companies are concerned. "It could do surprisingly well," he concludes.
(So much for taking the word of an experienced writer on such matters)