Microsoft Points Out iPad's Enterprise Weaknesses

Apple's got the lead on the tablet market right now, mostly thanks to the company's being first to market with one that's finally been able to attract consumers.

As we've seen from CES, there's going to be lots of tablets other than the iPad on the market this year. Microsoft will inevitably be supplying the software for some of the tablets, but it's still got a mountain of iPads to climb over.

Apple claims that 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies are piloting or deploying iPads, which must make Microsoft a little jealous. Microsoft released a presentation dated December 2010 to its partners a highlighting the weaknesses of it the iPad.

Microsoft points out that the iPad isn't exactly suited to the enterprise space – not that it was ever designed to be – in the slide below.

Read more from ZDNet.

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Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.

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27 Comments Comment from the forums

rohitbaran

Let the pissing contest begin!
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joytech22

The iPad's a multimedia and entertainment device, it wasn't really designed to be used in a business environment but people do anyway.

It's fine for a lot of things businesses need, but the iPad wasn't meant to cater to "Everyones" needs because put simply no computing device can fulfil everybody's expectations.
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Well, they are comparing apple and oranges ;-)
From an IT manager's perpective (from a large corporation), Microsoft's arguments are relevant. Security seriously sucks on Apple devices and the only reason why there are not so much problems with them is that pirates are not that interested in it.
On the other hand, Windows based tablets always failed to impress me on the functionalities and user friendliness. They are also so slow and consume so much power that we can safely say that they barely function, while iPads run smooth.
I imagine that some software suites for locking features of the iPad (other than what Apple is locking ;-) ), establishing VPN connections,... will do the job for most enterprises.
We are not in a situation where every employee should have an iPad, but there already some specialized iPad applications available for some very specific tasks (inventory of assets in large building, interviews,...) and for those tasks, they work very well.
To me, Apple only misses three things to win more of those large accounts:
- Offering them better ways to install their applications (let the enterprises put apps on the devices without this ##"!! iStore.
- Offer more rugged versions of the iPad (because the current one will never work in some environments).
- A screen that can be read outdoors.
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geoffs

Translation: "We don't have a product that's even potentially in that market, yet. Therefore, we're going to attack the market leader as a stall tactic while we figure out what we'll do to compete."
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hardcore_gamer

They missed the important point ; Steve Jobs is

edited by Mod to remove probably untrue slur
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nice job microsoft...nothing like pointing out the deficiencies of others when you yourself have nothing viable to offer.
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I dont really think windows mobile can compete with ipad.. well as of this moment..

http://www.discrematech.com

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snoogins

Regardless of whether or not microsoft can compete, their worries are still valid.

Furthermore, as we have seen in CES'11, lets see what happens when win tablets.. or even droid tablets hit the mainstream.

Apple may have gotten the jump, but thats about all they are going to get (or the people who blindly buy apple without knowing why).
Reply
JohnnyLucky

I just can't get excited about any of the tablets. I thin it's because use a very large monitor when I work. A tablet would not not be suitable for what I do.
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Bottom line. Apple is not in the enterprise market. Nuff said. Microsoft is.....but they are loosing their grip to other innovators like Google and Apple. For example after presentations from Google and Microsoft at a Major university, it was recommended by the committee to move away from Microsoft. I know...this because I'm part of the committee.

PS. Don't you hate when someone says, "Nuff said", and continue blabbing! LOL.
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