Dell's comment hell over iPad 2 enterprise claims

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 30 March 2011 21:07

Business IT - Technology

A Dell executive has suggested the iPad 2, kitted out with extras, costs at least $1500 while suggesting it would fail in the enterprise, with Android Honeycomb to win and a dual Windows/Honeycomb strategy to come.

With Apple making great strides into the enterprise, now more so than ever with a more powerful iPad 2 that's hard to get and seemingly wanted by all, Apple's competitors are striking back.

With Acer launching a stack of tablets in April, Viewsonic's already on the market, Samsung and LG offering high-end Android tablets and the Motorola Xoom, let alone the HP WebOS tablet, the RIM Playbook, Toshiba's tablets and more to come, Dell has also foreshadowed its multi-OS strategy of Windows and Android to take on Apple's current iDominator.

An interview in Australia's CIO Magazine with Dell's global head of marketing for large enterprises and public organisations, Andy Lark, uncovered some interesting statements, including a decalaration that the iPad would 'fail in the enterprise'. 

It's a pretty bold statement considering the explosion of iPad apps, including business oriented and enterprise apps, and the iPad's growing use in business.

Indeed, it's a statement that has been lambasted the world over as simply being incorrect.

Of course, it is possible that the more 'open' stance of Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows in allowing anyone to create third-party software and publish it without restriction (unless prohibited, of course, by law) and Microsoft's strong suit in enterprise integration may well lead to a combo Android/Windows tablet, at the right price, finding enterprise popularity.

Especially when the Windows side of things will already integrate seamlessly into existing Windows enterprise infrastructure, and the Android side of things able to deliver a much more iPad-esque experience.

However - no Android or Windows tablet has yet proven itself able to gain massive consumer popularity, let alone enterprise popularity, nor has anyone yet truly been able to fully match the iPad 2's dimensions and battery life.

Sure, some of the latest Android OS 3.0 Honeycomb tablets are getting closer, but the iPad 2 is the leader in price, weight, dimensions, software library and in rapidly evolving enterprise capabilities that have been evolving since before the iPad 1 - through the iPhone.

Dell's Mr Lark professed happiness at Apple's ability to have finally sparked the tablet market into vibrant life, but told CIO Magazine that ''longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary' saying that 'already Android is outpacing them.'

Now, we're not sure if Mr Lark has considered that Apple would be developing its iOS 5.0 with a view to all that has transpired since the very first iPhone OS 1.0 and, Palm's WebOS, Microsoft's Windows Tablet PC world and all the rest.

You'd have to imagine that iOS 5.0 will be a rip-roarin' ball tearer of a next-gen UI and OS that will knock Android OS 3.0, WebOS, QNX OS and Windows 8 out of the park. Naturally we're yet to see if that'll be the case, but the world's Apple watchers and fans don't just expect it, they demand it.

What other strange stuff did Mr Lark say as he chucked another verbal prawn on the interview barbie down under? Please read on to page two!