My Laptop vs My iPad

Big corporate IT departments are constantly struggling to meet their end users needs.  In the good old days, business-class IT hardware was just too expensive for the individual. Sure, you could bring your personal laptop into the office but the gear that your employer provided was typically of higher quality so what was the point.  The IT departments “no corporate e-mail accounts on personal machines” policy wasn’t that big of a deal. We didn’t mind being told what we can use and how we could use it because there just weren’t that many choices.

But today, smart phones and iPads are changing things.  Particularly for a class of workers that I’ve heard  termed , “information consumers.” As the name implies, Information consumers tend to use more information than they create.  They  spend more of their time reading and responding to e-mail and using their tools to digest information created by other people instead of actually creating  content themselves.

Information consumers tend to be more mobile and traditionally they’ve used a laptop because of it. But it’s never been the perfect tool for the job. I spend a lot of time on the road visiting clients and prospective clients. As a result, I spend a lot of my “in between” time in coffee shops with Internet connections. In between time typically consists of a half-hour here 45 minuets there. I found that in between time is best used to log in and check e-mail and to catch up on phone calls. The brevity of my in-between time makes it difficult to get any other kind of work done.

A laptop is most certainly overkill for just checking your e-mail, but I’ve always found it difficult to do e-mail on a smart phone.   Like most people, my first smartphone  was a BlackBerry. I got pretty good at thumbing out two and three word e-mails, but composing and meaningful response to a client on a thumb pad was incredibly difficult for me.   I traded in my blackberry for an iPhone sometime ago and that certainly didn’t help to alleviate this issue.

As a result, I was always reaching into my bag for my laptop, turning it on, waiting, logging on to the wireless network, waiting, logging on to  the corporate network, waiting and then finally getting to access my e-mail. Depending on the speed and age of my laptop this exercise ranged from a few minutes to whole lot of minutes. It’s an incredibly frustrating process but I didn’t have a lot of options. That is, until now.

My iPad has a battery life of nearly 10 hours and so like my cell phone, it’s always on. I still have to wait a little bit to log onto the wireless network but it’s only a little bit. The big problem with the iPad is the integrated keyboard. It’s still difficult to pound out e-mail on the touchscreen. I solved that problem by purchasing a wireless keyboard that also serves as a protective case for the tablet.

I downloaded an app that allows me to create a remote desktop connection to my corporate resources. The app allows me to use the touchscreen to simulate a mouse cursor and it does an okay job, but again I really wouldn’t use this out to open up a word document and try to create a proposal or scope of work. There’s just not enough real estate on screen and the user interface is just too different for me. But I can certainly use it to login to Endsight business system to check on the status of the project or to reschedule a site visit.

I’m still heavily reliant on my laptop. In fact, I’m using it to compose this blog.  But my iPad has forever displaced it while I’m on the road. Quick access to my e-mail  while I’m mobile is just one of the things I like about my iPad. If you’re considering incorporating  a tablet into your computing environment and you like to hear more about my experience click here and let’s set up a time to talk in person.