First, consider the form factor. The iPad is very light, durable, and portable. Its size, at approximately 9.5 inches by 7.5 inches is a smaller footprint than a piece of paper. Its 1.5lb size is lighter than most netbooks and pretty much all laptops. Its aluminum body and no moving parts, makes it very durable. Apple also sells a bifold case that protects the screen when not in use.
Next, the wifi and cellular 3G connections make this device easier than most to connect to the internet. Also with this device comes unprecedented flexibility with the cellular 3G connection. You are not bound to any kind of contract. AT&T Wireless provides the 3G service, but the service is billed month to month through the iTunes account registered with the device. This means that if wifi suits your needs, you can just run wifi, but when you are away from a wifi network, you can enable 3G service at any time. It is $14.99 for 250MB of data transfer or $29.99 for 1 month of unlimited access. And although Verizon makes a big deal about AT&T's footprint, AT&T has the fastest and highest rated 3G service in the country.
The GPS capabilities of the device is worth consideration as well. With this device, a company has the potential of tracking its technicians' location and using the information to strategically allocate resources in real time. Just sending GPS coordinates on a regular schedule does not require significant bandwidth and makes the device the least expensive device on the market to deliver the GPS coordinates of the technician. Smart Phones and dedicated GPS devices charge much more for the internet connection than the $14.99 iPad plan.
There are also a host of other reasons to consider the iPad as a tool of the trade. It is touch driven and extremely user friendly. Even the seasoned construction workers that fall into the technology impaired category can pick the device up and use their finger to point at what they want to do. Installing industry specific software, and updating the software when needed is effortless. Also email and accessing the web is brought to a whole new level on the device as Apple has spent considerable time optimizing these applications for the iPad. Also, the convenience of having a device that is instantly on, allows you to pick up the device and use it when you otherwise would not want to wait to get your laptop or netbook ready.
But the single biggest reason that the Service and Construction industry should consider the iPad is the price. The iPad is a fraction of the cost of a Tablet PC but with a greater feature set. Granted, there are some things that the iPad doesn't do, such as execute windows software, but for many companies as long as the device has the software the company needs, the advantage of a $630 field replaceable device (for the 16GB 3G device) outweighs the several thousand dollar Tablet PC. Companies not requiring 3G service can get the device for as little as $499, and like the iPhone the screens will be replaceable via low cost kits so if the device is damaged, it can usually be repaired.
The iPad has superior form and function to netbooks but at a similar price tag. Although some netbooks are under $400, these are very skimpy on the storage space, cpu, and memory and wouldn't compare favorably to the iPad. When it comes to the comparison versus laptops, I believe it will come down to whether or not the software is available on the iPad that the worker needs to use. If it is there, the iPad will replace many laptops out in the field as well.
There you have it. The iPad is sleek, durable, user-friendly, and inexpensive. Software is being developed to make the iPad the ideal mobile client for many major software applications. hh2 Web Services is happy to announce their hh2 Field Service client to work with the construction and real estate industry. Contact hh2 Web Services for more information.
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