The iPad in the Enterprise

Given Apple’s track record with the iPhone (News - Alert) and iPod, the amazing popularity of the iPad among consumers shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. But what is significant about the iPad is that demand for the tablet has heated up in the business world, an area where Apple (News - Alert) traditionally hasn’t been a major player.

More reports and news stories have been pointing to the growth of the iPad among business users. A report earlier this year from Good Technology (News - Alert), which provides tools for IT to manage a mobile environment, found that the number of iPad activations for its mobile products surged from essentially 0 percent at the beginning of 2010 to 22 percent by the end of the year.

A more recent article in Network World (News - Alert) also pointed to the surging demand for the iPad in the enterprise, and quoted Apple’s own Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer who said in January that “over 80 percent of the Fortune 100 are already deploying or piloting iPad, up from 65 percent in the September quarter.”

Spurred on by the iPhone’s increasing use in the workplace, perhaps it’s only natural that its bigger cousin iPad follow suit. But the allure of the iPad for business workers is still interesting because Apple doesn’t design the device itself in mind for the enterprise. Like most Apple products, the tablet’s features and capabilities are clearly geared toward the consumer market. The demand among the corporate crowd for the tablet is certainly not lost on Apple, which even offers a support page for enterprises looking to deploy the iPad, iOS and the various built-in apps. But at its heart, the iPad is still a consumer gadget.

Third-party app developers have also been taking advantage of the tablet’s demand among corporate users. More and more business apps have been hitting Apple’s App Store, both for the iPhone and the iPad. Just scouring through the many apps in the business category in the App Store shows a wide variety of items available for corporate customers.

The recently released and still-hard-to-find iPad 2 steps up the game by introducing a few new features that could prove enticing to business workers. The new front and rear webcams open up opportunities for videoconferencing on the go, while the new HDMI adapter (which also works with the original iPad, the iPhone, and the iPod touch) lets users connect their devices to a big screen monitor or projector, ideal for corporate presentations.

The iPad’s appeal to mobile workers is also more evidence of the growing consumerization of IT.

When I worked in IT for my former company a decade ago, the guidelines were more clear-cut. IT would supply users with a company-issued computer outfitted with company-supported applications. If users installed their own programs or tried to use their own devices, they were pretty much on their own. But today, business users want to be able to use their own devices and applications, especially ones that allow them to work remotely, and expect IT to help and support them and make sure it all works.

Of course, all of this opens up challenges for IT admins, who have to make sure these devices can connect to the network, don’t create any security headaches, and can offer the necessary content and resources that users need to do their jobs. Those are still reasons why many companies won’t allow devices like the iPad through their doors or on their networks. But with workers increasingly wanting to user their own personal gadgets both on and off the job, the iPad and similar devices will continue to try to steamroll their way into the enterprise.