Dell: Apple iPad will fail in the enterprise

[Emil]

Dell has declared that the Apple iPad will not succeed in the enterprise. The device has been selling really well, and is even ahead of its competitors in the business world, but those are just the results for the short term. Andy Lark, Dell's global head of marketing for large enterprises and public organizations, believes that in the longer term, the iPad will fail.

"I couldn't be happier that Apple has created a market and built up enthusiasm but longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary," Lark told CIO Australia. "[Apple has] done a really nice job, they've got a great product, but the challenge they've got is that already Android is outpacing them. Apple is great if you've got a lot of money and live on an island. It's not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex. We've taken a very considered approach to tablets, given that the vast majority of our business isn't in the consumer space. [A company] like Samsung has to aggressively go after their business, but we've got a far more diversified footprint than some of these players."

Lark argues that the cost of Apple products is a huge deterrent for iPad deployments in the corporate world. That may be true, but Lark makes offers some odd numbers, saying that an iPad with a keyboard, mouse, and a case will set you back $1500 or $1600. We're not sure how he got that price given that the most expensive version of the device goes for $830. We seriously doubt businesses need to purchase $670 or $770 worth of iPad accessories for their environments.

As for Dell's own strategy, Lark says his company is sticking with two operating systems: Windows 7 and Android 3.0 (codenamed Honeycomb). "We think that giving people that choice is very important," he said. It's too bad such a device is not yet available from the company.

Last month, Dell offered up the Dell Streak 7 for $450. The tablet has pretty decent hardware: a 7-inch WVGA display with Gorilla Glass protection, Nvidia's dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2, 16GB of internal memory (expandable by up to 32GB via an SD card slot), and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera accompanied by Qik Video Chat. The software is apparently not so good, however, as it runs Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) rather than Android 3.0, which was designed with tablets in mind.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/43060-dell-apple-ipad-will-fail-in-the-enterprise.html

 

[DelJo63]

pure F.U.D. {fear, uncertainty and doubt} attempting to shape the market in Dell's favor

 

[gwailo247]

Time will tell, but I think as with phones, Apple has jumped out of the gate with tablets, and sooner or later everyone else will catch up. I think that Jobs is singlehandedly responsible for the success of this past decade, but IMO he is also the reason that market will eventually reach equilibrium in a detrimental fashion to Apple.

He things he still dealing with the Mac users of the 1990s, who would die before you can pry the Mac from their hands. The iPhone buyers are not the same audience, and you can't treat them the same way. They're feeling really manly because of their market cap, and now have become these giant a-holes throwing their weight around dictating everything. MS, in a pretty smart move, has positioned itself to be the anti-Apple. While they have a residual negative reputation, in the past few years they have changed the way that they run things. Apple meanwhile is going in the same direction, a giant tank going through buildings crushing everything in its way, building up the same negative feelings that MS did in the past.

 

[Whoaman]

Lark

'nuff said.

 

[krayzie]

its true, but apple are listening to enterprise and improving their MDM, and there is also alot of 3rd party vendors that are taking up the slack, but it is far from enterprise ready

 

[yRaz]

I think tablets are stupid and impractical. I know a lot of people who bought an iPad for school and say they really wish they would have gotten a netbook or laptop. Tablets are just toys, nothing more. Now that everyone has this new toy we are trying to figure out what they are useful for. Turns out they are all play and no work. I bet that is part of the reason apple put iOS on it instead of OSX. They can't take advantage of the little productivity OSX has to offer so they use the toyish iOS. Give them the app store since it isn't anything more than an over sized iPod touch.

 

[Guest]

Depending on the business, software can definitely go beyond 1000$, the iPad doesn't have the nessacry software available for any business off the bat.