Road warriors have always wanted a lighter, more versatile alternative to their laptops. Tablet PCs have tried and failed, while smartphones are doing a slightly better job of offering some of the functionality normally reserved for a laptop. But now, with the iPad launch looming, the tablet often called an oversized iPhone is being looked at as a legitimate alternative to notebooks for road warriors. Enterprise Mobile Today has the report.
Remember that Certs jingle, “It’s two, two, two mints in one?” According to a new poll, mobile phone users expect the next generation of mobile devices to be a twofer as well — something they can use for leisure activities as well as work.
Just over 52 percent of smartphone users in a Zogby poll said they are most likely to use a new tablet device like the iPad for work. But watching movies came in second at 48 percent, followed by playing games in third place at 35.4 percent. The poll, commissioned by enterprise mobile device technology player Sybase (NYSE:SY), was released this week at the CTIA conference.
For the poll, Zogby International conducted an online survey of 2,443 adults with mobile phones in the U.S. of which 770 owned a smartphone.
The results come just days in advance of the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad’s expected arrival on store shelves. The much anticipated iPad tablet is begin pegged by some analysts — and Apple CEO Steve Jobs — as promising to create a new category of portable device. Even though it’s far from the first computer tablet, the iPad’s friendly user interface and variety of applications (available via its iPhone-like App Store model) is expected to perk up what’s been a relatively sleepy market for tablets that so far have mainly been sold for niche applications like order delivery.