Let me preface this entire post with the following statement: I consider myself to be an early adopter of technology, and regard it as somewhat of a necessity in my line of work. I also enjoy trying new things.
When Steve Jobs unveiled the magical device known as the iPad, I was a bit skeptical. I had no doubt that it would have a profound impact on the way we consume media at home. I was unconvinced of its usefulness as it relates to business, or particularly, my use in my business. My major reasoning for being skeptical was the inability to use it as my only device when traveling. Typically when I travel, I have my Droid, laptop, Verizon 3G data card and if it is a long trip, most likely an iPod touch. Going through the security checkpoint at the airport can be a bit tedious with this much gear. Why would I want to add another device to the mix? An iPad could replace the iPod touch, but it certainly isn’t saving me any room on my carry-on.
In the end, my curiosity was piqued enough to push my doubts aside.
We are a Citrix Solutions Advisor. Citrix has long been a visionary in the application virtualization market. When the iPad was released, they immediately went to work on developing an iPad version of their Citrix Receiver. Used in conjunction with their XenDesktop and/or XenApp solutions, this software makes the iPad extremely useful. I am able to logon to my virtual desktop and applications from anywhere I am with an internet connection, including my wi-fi tethering Droid. Now I am able to do more than listen to Bon Jovi, watch movies and reply to emails; I am fully connected to my office wherever I am.
At CES 7 billion (around 80) new tablet devices were announced, some ready to ship and others still in varying stages of production, but each with a goal of grabbing some of the market that was, for the most part, created by Apple. It will be interesting to see what impact these devices have. One thing the Android based units have in their favor is the ability to run Adobe Flash 10.1. Apple has made their thoughts clear on Flash and that they believe HTML 5 is the future, but there are a lot of websites and web based apps that are built in Flash. This is the one thing I feel is lacking on my iPad. I haven’t been personally impacted by the iPad’s lack of Flash support, but many of our education customers could benefit from the device allowing it.
We are currently looking at various tablet devices and how they can be used in both the business and education sectors. We will be testing many of these in our lab, and thoughts and suggestions regarding models and applications are always appreciated.
Now, back to Angry Birds…