HP, RIM Tablets Duel for Enterprise Customers - eWeek

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By: Wayne Rash
2010-10-24
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HP, RIM Tablets Duel for Enterprise Customers
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Hewlett Packard and Research in Motion demonstrated at the Gartner Symposium/IT Expo in Orlando that there is more than one way to slice the tablet market.  

Both companies highlighted their tablets, both aimed at the enterprise market, and both tablets were completely different from the Apple iPad and from each other. Could this mean a fragmentation of the tablet market or simply a market that is too broad for one device to satisfy? 

HP is the first out of the gate with an enterprise tablet. The Slate 500 went on sale just after midnight on October 22 on the HP Web site. Chris Preimesberger, who examined the device, describes it as being narrower and lighter than the iPad. More significantly, the device runs Windows 7 Professional. 

According to HP?s press materials, this tablet is designed as a business machine rather than a consumer electronics item. This means that it comes with Microsoft Office 2010, it has a stylus for entering handwritten notes and for writing e-mails. The Slate 500 includes a docking station with additional USB ports, a video port, and it includes two cameras, one facing to the front and one to the rear for video conferencing and for taking photos of things. The four-finger multi-touch screen also means that you aren?t dependant on the stylus to use the Slate. 

What?s less well-known is that tablet computers aren?t new at HP. I used the first one well over a decade ago. In those days the device was more like a laptop with a detachable screen. On the bottom was the keyboard. Enclosed in the screen section were a battery, the hard disk and the WiFi radio, and a socket for holding the electronic stylus. You needed to use the stylus or a USB mouse and keyboard to use the computer. Over the years HP has updated its line of tablet computers, and the Slate 500 is a logical evolution of that product line. 

RIM?s tablet, meanwhile, may be aimed at the enterprise, but it has little in common with the HP Slate. The RIM device is designed to be used in conjunction with a BlackBerry smart phone. Like the HP, the PlayBook has support for WiFi and Bluetooth. Also like the HP, it does not have a 3G or 4G radio. The PlayBook is designed to sync with BlackBerry devices, and it?s designed to tether to them for access to high speed wireless Internet access. 

RIM claims the PlayBook is also not competing with the Apple iPad for consumer dollars. While about half of all BlackBerries are sold to consumers, it?s hard to imagine a large number of consumers wanting their tablet tethered to their phones. 

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Gartner: Tablets will serve as companion devices in enterprise market - Visage Mobile

In a report predicting booming sales for the technology over the next few years, market research firm Gartner said tablet PCs will be used primarily as companion devices to notebooks for the enterprise market.

Inflating popularity already had many experts positioning tablets as a key piece to the enterprise mobility market in the coming years. But Gartner has concluded it will take some time for the tablet to fully supplant the notebook computer.

For now, the tablet will be utilized as a secondary device to take on the road or use for email, calendaring, accessing web applications and information sources and showing PowerPoint presentations, Gartner predicts. The firm said tablets may be bumped down as a third device in some instances.

"Since these workers usually also have smartphones, media tablets become their third device. Most organizations will not buy that third device," Gartner's report concludes.

However, workers may use their own money to purchase a tablet and use it for both corporate mobility and leisure, Gartner found. The convenience factor for travel and an "instant on" for quick look-up functions make tablets viable for both uses.

Overall, Gartner's study predicted total tablet sales will reach 19.5 million units sold this year. Next year, sales will balloon 181 percent to 54.8 million units sold, according to Gartner. North America will account for 61 percent of tablet sales this year, but will see its market share drop to 43 percent in 2011.

Despite Gartner's prediction, many still believe tablet PCs will be widely adopted for corporate mobility management.

Mobile services provider AT&T recently announced a plan to sell iPads directly to businesses. It is the first time a vendor has positioned the tablet directly as a business tool, according to InformationWeek.

"We are getting many requests for help on iPad strategies for the enterprise," Forrester Research Vice President and Principal Analyst Ted Schadler told InformationWeek. "iPads are a tremendously empowering technology that any employee can buy."

AT&T did not provide pricing details about the initiative, saying only that it would offer its enterprise customers Wi-Fi and 3G iPads through "attractive post-paid mobile broadband plans." The plan hits the market on October 28.

Many see this move as beating rival Verizon Wireless to the enterprise punch. One day before AT&T's announcement, Verizon revealed that it would begin selling iPads in the near future.

This entry was posted by Mobility Management News Desk on Monday, October 18th, 2010 at 8:37 am and is filed under Managing Mobile Devices News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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