By: Will Fleenor, CPA, PhD, K2 Enterprises
Blog Series: Which Tablet is Best for You?
Post 3 of 5
Part 3: Apple® iOS® and iPad®
Apple started the tablet revolution in 2010, with the first iPad. Businesses are clearly the primary consumers of the iPad with 91 percent of all 2013’s fourth-quarter tablet activations being large corporate users. Because the majority of the iPad market is business users, it is well designed to meet the needs of businesses. It has a very secure operating system in which the only significant instances of malware have been on iOS devices that were “jailbroken—” a method of hacking into a locked device by stripping off controls. Some of the features of the iPad that are much appreciated by businesses include:
- Highly secure operating system
- Strong mobile device management tools for IT professionals
- Internal storage encrypted by default and cannot be changed
- Largest selection of high-quality business apps
- High-quality hardware in an amazingly compact and attractive form factor
- Availability of Microsoft Office apps
There are some disadvantages to the iPad even for some Mac® users. The apps on the iPad will not run on a Mac and vice versa. Windows 8.1 tablets run the full Windows 8.1 desktop operating system including the touch driven Windows 8 apps. Windows 8.1 makes it possible to learn just one operating system for both your tablet and desktop—and perhaps your phone. Many Mac users actually run Windows on their Mac computers to access corporate data and use corporate applications. Because iPad can’t run Windows, some Mac users may find iOS based tablets less useful than Windows 8 tablets. The following are other disadvantages of the iPad for business users:
- No mouse
- No USB port
- No Multitasking (only one app on the screen at a time)
- Lack of a file management system (Where is the c-drive anyway?)
- Cost (pretty high for something that is only a tablet, not a laptop replacement)
Next in this blog series, we will discuss the pros and cons of Windows® tablets._
For more information on making tech work for you, join experts from K2 Enterprises at NCACPA’s TechFest Summer Conference, August 18–19, 2014, for the nuts and bolts of today’s technical solutions and how to confidently put them to work for your business!
William C. Fleenor, CPA, Ph.D.
• Past Chair of the AICPA’s National Microcomputer Conference
• Published articles in the Journal of Accountancy & CPA Journal
• Winner of the AICPA “Accounting Educator of the Year Award”
• Has conducted continuing education for CPAs in 48 states