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How executives are using tablet devices and how it affects IT

The consumer computer market has long been in the thrall of Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs. Apple devices inspire adoration and loyalty that border on the religious.

Until recently, though, the enterprise IT market was immune to Apple's charms. Even when the company relaunched its PCs in the mid-1990s as globular, multi-coloured objects of desire, it did little to tempt businesses away from Microsoft Windows and the x86 PC.

But that has changed, and quickly. Since its launch in 2010, Apple's iPad tablet device has transfixed the business community, becoming the kind of must-have executive gadget not seen since the early days of the BlackBerry.

Executives in the IT industry are among the most eager iPad enthusiasts. Over breakfast at the Ritz earlier this year, Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor told Information Age, with absolute sincerity, that the iPad is “the first device in the history of technology that competes favourably with paper”.

It is a bold claim, but it is not without grounds. A recent report from Forrester Research asserted that that at the upper echelons of the corporate heirarchy, the iPad is replacing paper print outs as the chosen medium for consuming information.

“We have heard this from almost every major company,” Forrester wrote. “It makes you and your IT organisation look great when you can give your C-level staff and the board of directors an iPad instead of handing them a 400-page binder.”

However, it is typically the executives themselves introduce iPads into the business. A survey of over 400 enterprise organisations by US research firm Model Metrics found that a C-level executive was the first employee to bring an iPad into work at 49% of them.

Not surprisingly, the survey also found that it was executives who use iPads the most. Just over half the respondents (53%) reported that executives at their organisation use the device. That compares to 42% of organisations whose IT staff uses iPads and 32% whose salesforce do.

From downtime to uptime

Why is this? One reason is that with a starting price of £399, not everyone can afford an iPad.

But according to analyst firm Gartner's consumer device expert Carole Milanesi, another reason is that the iPad's user friendly design makes it popular with an audience of people (of a certain age) that would normally expect their secretaries to handle technology.

“The iPad transcends the perception that you need to be tech savvy to use it,” she explains, “so you don't need to get your secretary to sort it out.”

So what are these executives doing with their iPads? According to Milanesi, the devices are normally used not as replacement to a laptop or smartphone, but as an adjunct. “Our position is that the iPad is mostly a companion device,” she says.

There are a few scenarios in which iPads come into their own, she explains. The first is in meetings, formal or otherwise. The fact that a tablet can be easily manipulated means that the user is able to control who can see the screen. This means that information can be shared, but also concealed.

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