iDon't

Ray Shaw argues that iPad envy, like the device, is over-rated.

Story by Ray Shaw
 

It’s official. if you don’t have an iPad you will rot in hell, you will not be cool, your hair will fall out (too late for me), small furry animals will attack you, and your significant other will leave you. Such is the conviction of the Apple “Fanboys” that entire websites are devoted to praising what amounts to little more than a relatively expensive, data hungry, oversized iPhone when in fact it is just a nicely designed portable “electronic computing device” – not the second coming!

Once you strip away the hype from the iPad you begin to understand that it’s really about Apple legitimising a new computing form factor -10”+ screens, no keyboard, 600+ grams weight, instant on, 3G/NextG, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and being able to do something on the move more than basic email, surf the web, view videos and play Angry Birds. I praise Apple for this and look forward to a long and happy future with a plethora of always-connected pad/tablet/slate devices ruling my life even more so than my highly efficient, proven, PC, Windows smart phone and Windows 7 netbook combined.

But the hype has left a lot of people disappointed, not to mention poorer – especially when you mention the “B” word – business… Let’s face it, Windows rules the roost in business. Somewhere over 90 per cent of all desktops run it and the majority use MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint). Job advertisements firmly request high levels of aptitude with Office, not iWorks, Pages or Keynote.

What iPad users don’t realise is that you can’t rush off and open an existing Word document, edit it on the iPad and save it as a Word document without (a) purchasing an “App” and (b) reasonably expecting things like fonts, bullet points, numbering, background colours, tables, borders, page breaks, headers and footers, hyperlinks and more to be in someway impacted or totally screwed up. iPad does not have a really compatible Office program. The easy solution is to buy a Windows 7 tablet that runs Office - there will be many coming to market soon. You may get away with an Android-based tablet and an Office-like “App” but few of these are much closer to being compatible.

What iPad users don’t realise is that it does not have a USB port so transferring a few to a few hundred MB of client files via 3G could take years from your life and add years to your mortgage repayments. Sure it has Wi-Fi but who has time to wait as voluminous files trickle over. Oh, and many apps only handle file sizes up to 500k (1/2MB). The solution: hope that iPad3 (whenever) has USB or buy a Windows 7 or Android tablet with USB and Ethernet connections.

What iPad users don’t realise is that the convenience of expensive 3G/NextG data becomes disastrously expensive if you exceed your monthly allowance. Some well-known plans shape it to 64kbps (about .5mbps) but other plans charge excess data at between 25 and 50 cents per MB – that’s $250 to $500 per GB if you exceed your limit. Frequent complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman relate to users downloading movies and music that can range in size from say 500MB to 6000MB ($250 to $3000 for the download). It does not matter if you do this on an iPad or Windows or Android – the cost will be the same but the latter appear to have more control over “always on” data usage.

What iPad users don’t realise is that nasty people (called iHackers) now consider this a device to infect and steal financial data and your ID from – with ease and impunity. Yes 3G is relatively secure but public Wi-Fi is not. The iPad Safari browser is not great at protecting you from malware sites. Hotel and convention centre Wi-Fi hotspots are way too easy to “spoof” and lets hackers snoop everything you do at the venue.

So what does this mean to the meetings industry?

While Apple and “Droids” will sell truckloads of pads and slates the present take up is miniscule compared to delegate ownership of Windows or Macnote/netbooks. Investing in iPad or Droid “Apps” to distribute content at events is currently a waste of money. Investing in HTML web pages that are formatted to a 10” or larger screen are cost effective and easy. It’s too early and too costly to try to replace on-site communications with a pad.

Until major carriers reduce 3G/NextG data costs delegates won’t appreciate getting a large data bill for downloading papers or content.

In the interim USB sticks loaded with content are the best, cheapest and most convenient way of distributing content.
And I think the tablet war is far from over. The more I look at Apple’s device I see it is a great gadget for content viewing but not for content creation. The allure of a Windows tablet (if they can get issues like battery life and weight right and they will), where you can run standard Windows programs, use a familiar OS and load AV protection and firewalls may turn the tide. Windows 7 is not totally touch optimised – Windows 8 will be.
 

An opinion piece from a tongue-in-cheek Ray Shaw – an IT journalist and self-confessed PC user who does not own any Apple products, believes in open sourcing and freedom of choice. In his spare time he is managing director of MCI Australia www.mci-group/australia.