In Bloomberg BusinessWeek's recent review of the iPad, columnist Rich Jarovslovsky speculates that the iPad could be a game changing device for business professionals. He touts it as "a marriage of the always-connected ultra-portability of a wireless phone with the power and flexibility of a laptop or even a desktop PC." The big question is whether or not tablet devices such as the iPad will be the primary computing device for companies, or a device in addition to laptops and smart phones already in use. The base model costs $499, in the ballpark with netbooks; however it only offers 16 to 64 gigabytes of hard drive memory depending on the model, compared with 160 gigabytes found in the average netbook. Citrix Systems CEO Mark B. Templeton predicts that business usage of the iPad will skyrocket, in part due to his company's virtualization software that lets owners remotely access the same screen they see on their office PC. The iPad has only been on the market since April 3rd, so it is too soon to know for certain how great an impact it may have on workplace computing. For now, companies will just have to wait and see if it elicits a strong demand from their increasingly mobile workforce.
You can read Bloomberg BusinessWeek's review of the iPad in issue 4173, published April 12, 2010. To see a demo of the iPad, visit http://www.apple.com/ipad/guided-tours/.
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