The tablet revolution that started among consumers is rapidly taking over the enterprise, according to a new report from AnythingIT, an asset management firm that helps companies recycle and resell unwanted computer equipment.
As Enterprise Mobile Today reports, CIOs are embracing tablets — particularly the iPad — at the expense of laptops and netbooks.
AnythingIT’s report finds a 62 percent increase in the number of U.S. businesses that have replaced laptops and notebooks with tablet computers over the past three months.
“We’re in an interesting business because we can almost predict the future by seeing so much of the past,” David Bernstein, president of AnythingIT, told InternetNews.com. “We don’t sell new equipment, but we can see what companies are replacing.”
Bernstein mentioned several types of companies that he’s seen dump notebooks in favor of tablets or find new applications for the devices. Among those are restaurants providing a new kind of digital menu on a tablet device and field workers for government agencies as well as utility company personnel out on telephone poles and meter readers.
“The business world is really now just starting to define new ways to use these tablets,” he said. “It’s easy to imagine a realtor being able to easily show clients different properties on a tablet because it provides such a good visual representation.”