Tablet PCs and the enterprise

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Though the tablet PC is an ultra-mobile tool, solutions including docks and keyboards means the tablet can transition from the field to an office environment.

Wireless networking is now taking tablet PCs into new areas of the business, with mobile professionals uploading vital information from the field and working more efficiently on the road by keeping in touch with head office.

Getting users on board

For many IT managers, the Tablet PC is the device and form factor that time forgot. Certainly they haven't been as heavily marketed as laptops, PDAs, smartphones or other mobile devices, and are consequently less in demand with the rank and file of employees. Few feel cool carrying a tablet in a way they do carrying the latest BlackBerry model.

Any tablet PC you buy will need to be user-friendly and intuitive, or it may meet user resistance. As with most new implementations, training is important to ensure that each member of the workforce is getting the best tablet experience. This is particularly the case where the tablet user is in a role where they may be unfamiliar with day to day PC use of any kind, like in the warehouse where proprietary stand-alone handheld devices have traditionally ruled.

The whole point of mobile technology is to allow users to spend more time at the coalface of whatever they do, and less in the office worrying about admin. Arguably the tablet, with its light weight, is only rivalled by the PDA for being able to go almost anywhere, taking what used to be office-bound tasks into remote environments.

Not loved by everyone

As we've already said, tablets have enjoyed a mixed reputation with users. There are many happy tablet users. But there are plenty of people who consider that a tablet can do nothing that a laptop can't do just as well if not better. It seems only fair to consider this viewpoint in this last part of the article.

"I've never been a fan," says Stewart Hayward, commercial director with systems supplier WStore. "Since Compaq brought the TC1000 to

market I've never understood it. I'll grudgingly accept medicine as a

possible use, though I still think that unless you're planning on giving

every nurse and doctor a tablet, they'll still stick to paper and centralised computers."

Hayward also questions whether handwriting recognition apps are all that common. "Have you ever seen anyone use it for anything other than demonstration?" he asks. "Anyone passed you any electronic

documents with handwritten notes or markups recently?"

Most systems have perfectly good and far more legible alternatives to highlight changes, he argues.

Tablets may well remain niche products despite Microsoft's efforts to bring pen input into the mainstream. But as they become easier to use, then they will no doubt remain popular within those niches.

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