Tablets have been all the rage in the enterprise market recently.  But the tablets that have gained serious traction in the market are consumer tablets. This left me wondering is there such a thing as an enterprise tablet and if so what would be different about it? To gain some perspective on this, I rang Motorola Solutions (not the droid designers but one of the original rugged device vendors for manufacturing and retail) and asked if I could chat host a tweet jam with one of the company’s executives. Sheldon Safir, the Dir of Global Product Marketing at Motorola solutions who is responsible for enterprise mobile products, graciously agreed to indulge my new media format.

Here are some of the points that were discussed in the tweetjam #tabletfuture. Where possible, I tried to make the points into actual sentences since Twitter is cryptic with its 140 character limits. I’ve also placed a few of my thoughts in () with italic text.

ML: Are Tablets a fad?

Sheldon: I think tablets are here to stay.  Tablets are starting to be useful communication tools. The tablet form factor has proved appealing to consumers and has applicability to business. Given numbers sold and continued appearance of new devices, this category will grow and mature

ML: What have tablets done right/wrong to date?

Sheldon:

Right: Increased usability, with larger screen, improved readability, instant-on, fast access to personal and business email. Tablets are also a highly graphic, all-in-one personal device.

Wrong: Limited security, no device management. You can’t swap the battery when/if it dies mid-shift (context is that this is important in areas such as retail).

He also noted that a consumer tablet might not be durable enough if it gets dropped or banged

Bandwidth is not optimized for apps employees use every day such as scanning, price lookup, and inventory (I totally agree that mobile app developers need to consider that chatty apps drain batteries and use too much bandwidth.)

He also claimed the ergonomics may not be optimal for all day every day use by workers. (This is the 5”/7”/10” debate. I personally believe in multiple sizes where you pick the right size for the right job.)

ML: What will make enterprise tablets successful moving forward

Sheldon believes enterprise tablets need more durable construction, multiuser capability, enterprise-level security, longer lifecycle and swappable batteries that holds the data while the battery is being swapped. (For the most part I agree. Although there are certain roles/professions where an iPad works just fine. Sales are one example and executives using dashboards are a second. However, I can see how certain verticals such as manufacturing and retail might need a more industrial tablet with swappable batteries. As for security, every company needs it. The question is how to do this reasonably without annoying users.) He also noted that success would require broad availability and adoption of enterprise-class applications that put information at the fingertips of the employees

We talked about many things over the hour. Many chimed in with their thoughts as well. For example, @teresewhite said we see demand for product catalog apps on tablets. It replaces reams of paper and looks cool! @TerrenceWBrown talked about tablets to replace books in education @paulkaps asked questions about what if anything would be replaced by tablets? Would IT pay for all of this? And in generally asked several great business questions.  Overall, it was a great dialogue. I plan on doing another soon on the joys and challenges of mobilizing apps and bring your own device. If you have other topics that you think might be interesting to discuss, let me know.