We also publish a monthly newsletter for the healthcare market and thought this article on iPads might be of general interest. We have many clients looking to use iPads in their corporate environments, and the warnings here are pretty much the same as they are for healthcare – make sure that the applications you are using have been adapted for iPads, otherwise you may end up unhappy with the results.
Read the article about iPads in Healthcare.
Who hasn’t been in a situation where you’re embarrassed by a ringing cell phone in the middle of an important meeting? Here are some options that will help you deal with the interruption gracefully:
- Press the sleep/wake button on the top of your iPhone once. This will silence the ring but you can still answer it. So you can push the button, quietly leave the room and take your important call.
- Or, if the call can wait press the sleep/wake button on the top of your iPhone twice. This will send the call to voice mail.
We have set up a number of iPads to connect to our client’s corporate networks, using either Microsoft Terminal Services or Citrix to connect to a wide variety of applications (Office, accounting, databases, etc.). There are free apps that can be installed for both of these services. The clients who are using the iPads this way are doing light work at home or while traveling and are generally pleased. The major caveat to consider is that the interface is relatively small and everything is done using touch options, which can be a little awkward for some corporate applications. If you are interested in this option let us know and we’d be glad to talk through your requirements.
Earlier this month Apple introduced iCloud, a set of Cloud services that work with Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac) (and to some extent PCs) to store and sync content. There are other similar services (Microsoft’s Skydrive, for one) but Apple enthusiasts are very excited about the prospect of a Digital Hub that is tailored for Apple products. iCloud will incorporate iTunes, MobileMe, and other services.
Traditionally, most of BEI’s clients can be described as ‘Microsoft’ shops, meaning the desktops, laptops and servers used are based on the Windows OS platform. But things have changed a little bit recently, and we have seen more clients using Apple products.
We are all familiar with the Apple success story, starting with the iPod (& iTunes), which led to the iPhone (& the appstore) and now the iPad. The iPhone & the iPad are making significant inroads into corporate IT infrastructure. Many clients have employees that use iPhones to get their corporate email (the iPhone is an activesync device and is fully compatible with Exchange). The iPad is a wonderful ‘in between’ device – in between a smartphone and a laptop. While it is not all things to all people, it does serve many mobile computing needs. We see it as a supplement to, rather than a replacement of, smartphones and laptops (if you want to get more familiar with the iPad, please let us know – we can tell you all about it, and even let you take one for a test drive). Several iPad-like devices, called ‘slates’ have launched (or will be introduced) recently. The slates are manufactured by HP, Dell, etc. and they run on Windows 7.
Not much press, comparatively, is given to Apple’s desktop line (MacBook, iMac, etc.). These products have been around for a while, and are not as ‘sexy’ as the other products noted above. But Macs are getting easier and easier to integrate into Microsoft networks all the time. Apple’s long term strategy of getting Macs into the education market seems to have been paid off. Apple’s share of the desktop market has steadily risen over time – they now control over 10% of all desktops, compared to about 5% a couple of years ago.
All this has been great for Apple, who has recently surpassed Microsoft in the market value of its stock (although Microsoft still has much greater revenues and profits). At BEI we are now supporting many clients that are using iPhones, iPad and Macs. While we do not anticipate an all-Apple environment in the future, we do think that clients will be more open to filling a portion of their computing needs with Apple products.
If you are interested or have any questions, give us a call.
