Enterprise Adoption of Windows 8/Devices

[DOS]

I’m not sure I really see a corporate mainstream use for a product like this, or the Surface for that matter. Do we really think the average office user is going to need a touch screen, let alone a tablet?

Granted, if you’re an executive traveling a lot, I can see the application for a tablet form factor while on the plane, and a laptop form factor while in the hotel room. However, I just don’t see the implantation of tablets in a mainstream office setting.

I think the only businesses I have ever seen someone use a tablet have been sales (i.e. Best Buy, the Apple Store, etc.)

Maybe I’m just missing something. Have you seen other uses for tablets in a business setting?

 

[J515OP]

I’m not sure I really see a corporate mainstream use for a product like this, or the Surface for that matter. Do we really think the average office user is going to need a touch screen, let alone a tablet?

Granted, if you’re an executive traveling a lot, I can see the application for a tablet form factor while on the plane, and a laptop form factor while in the hotel room. However, I just don’t see the implantation of tablets in a mainstream office setting.

I think the only businesses I have ever seen someone use a tablet have been sales (i.e. Best Buy, the Apple Store, etc.)

Maybe I’m just missing something. Have you seen other uses for tablets in a business setting?

User wants and corporate needs are often very different Tablets certainly have a place in many fields but the general idea of thinner, lighter and longer lasting is universal and tablets are good at pushing that envelope.

 

[DOS]

I agree with your statement, but it was mitchellvii's statement of "Products like this are good for Windows 8 achieving enterprise acceptance."

If Microsoft wants to move Windows 8 to the enterprise they need to do one thing...

Move Microsoft Office to the Modern UI.

 

[mitchellvii]

I agree with your statement, but it was mitchellvii's statement of "Products like this are good for Windows 8 achieving enterprise acceptance."

If Microsoft wants to move Windows 8 to the enterprise they need to do one thing...

Move Microsoft Office to the Modern UI.

Well, Office doesn't lend itself well to touch. I can't imagine using touch on my Access Database or Excel Spreadsheets. Some things will just always demand the precision of a mouse. Just because something already exists doesn't mean it isn't the best solution. New <> better.

Windows 8 needs 2 things to succeed in the Enterprise:

1) On opportunity for the user to choose between a default Desktop or Modern UI interface (i.e., mouse vs touch).
2) Compelling hardware at competitive price-points.

The business uses for a tablet? Well, do business people use a pen and legal pad? Then there is a business use for a tablet.

 

[DOS]

You’re associating Windows 8 with touch. Although a feature, I don’t see Windows 8 as touch exclusive. I have a brand new laptop with Windows 8 that doesn’t have a touch screen. Yet it works fine.

I agree, Office requires the accuracy of a mouse, not touch. But again, Windows 8 and the Modern UI don’t necessarily mean touch.
And yes, I see people enter meetings with a pen and pad, whereas I have the Surface Pro. But keep in mind, their solution costs $1.78 while mine costs $1,000.00

For some reason, I kind of think that will be a hard sell to our Board of Directors.

 

[mitchellvii]

You’re associating Windows 8 with touch. Although a feature, I don’t see Windows 8 as touch exclusive. I have a brand new laptop with Windows 8 that doesn’t have a touch screen. Yet it works fine.

I agree, Office requires the accuracy of a mouse, not touch. But again, Windows 8 and the Modern UI don’t necessarily mean touch.
And yes, I see people enter meetings with a pen and pad, whereas I have the Surface Pro. But keep in mind, their solution costs $1.78 while mine costs $1,000.00

For some reason, I kind of think that will be a hard sell to our Board of Directors.

$1000 for dramatically increased productivity? Lol, how can your BOD afford NOT to do it? Besides, Corporations don't provide laptops to everyone in the organization. The people they do, Sales, IT, Engineering and Production would benefit greatly from this type of device.

 

[DOS]

Well, perhaps you and I are in different lines of work. Even if the device accepted touch input, pen input, voice recognition, and sprouted wings to followed our sales people around all day, it still wouldn’t increase their productivity.

I deal with outside vendors all day long, and only one time did a vendor walk into my office with a tablet device. He was from Verizon and was trying to sell it to me.

I just don’t see all the benefits you speak of.

 

[J515OP]

[Way off topic from the original post but...] I think Windows 8 only needs one thing to succeed in Enterprise. Time. Enterprise is slow to adopt and that's all there is to it. The Enterprise IT Adoption Cycle

 

[mitchellvii]

Way off topic from the original post but... I think Windows 8 only needs one thing to succeed in Enterprise. Time. Enterprise is slow to adopt and that's all there is to it. The Enterprise IT Adoption Cycle

Especially when they hate something as much as Enterprise hates being forced into Modern UI. You echo the basic problem with MS. The problem is not us, the problem is the user. Pushing on a rope.

 

[J515OP]

Especially when they hate something as much as Enterprise hates being forced into __________.

New game! Fill in the blank.

the the printing press (hand-writing forever!)
type writers (linotype forever!)
photocopiers (carbon paper for ever!)
DOS (punch cards forever!)
the mouse (keyboards forever!)
Windows (DOS forever!)

Pushing on a rope? 200,000 million global information workers want Windows (8) for their next work tablet OS. Only a matter of time.

 

[pallentx]

I use my personal Surface RT at work daily - if it were a pro, it could possibly replace my desktop with a good dock. Touch/tablet mode is great for the multiple meetings I get called into throughout the day - dock it at the desk and it could be the desktop. I think the Surface pro has more power than my current company-issued desktop. I would probably need more local storage though. We are evaluating Windows 8 tablets for exactly this kind of use right now for physicians and management who attend a lot of meetings.

 

[jnjroach]

I will say this, I was in a meeting all day on Wednesday that had 65 executives from a Global Fortune 500 Business Consulting/IT Consulting Company in attendance and I would say 40 of the 60 had Surface Pro's or Surface RT Devices. I also know that at least another 250 of their executives have Surface Pro's deployed. Not a single iPad or Android Tablet in the bunch (though there were few iPhones but I would say I saw 30 Phone 8 devices and 20 Phone 7.x devices).