Analysis: Apple iPad as a business device

Will the iPad prove a useful productivity tool?

Apple explicitly pushes its iPad device as a business tool as well as a consumer media device, and V3.co.uk has taken a look at the handheld tablet system with an eye to its enterprise credentials.

We found that the iPad has a user interface that shows promise for an application platform, but the device in its current form is too limited, too tied to Apple's own services, and does not play well with much existing enterprise IT infrastructure, although it can link to an Exchange mail server via a VPN.

In our view, these drawbacks do not make the iPad well suited for enterprise use, with the exception of some niche applications. Whether this will stop the iPad from infiltrating organisations, as the iPhone handset has done, is another matter.

Click the link for our earlier review of the iPad.

The iPad, which finally became available in the UK at the end of May, is a slate-mode tablet device with a 9.7in touch-screen interface. It runs a similar operating system to Apple's iPhone, and can in fact run many of the same applications, although newer software designed to take advantage of the iPad's larger screen will deliver a better experience.

It should be noted that the iPad is quite a pleasing device to use. The user interface, with its large application icons and on-screen controls activated by the touch of a finger, make it easy to get to grips with.

The standard applications will be familiar to iPhone users, consisting of Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Google Maps, Apple's Safari Browser, a Mail client, plus consumer applications such as iPod and YouTube.

Problems arise if you need to extend beyond the built-in applications, however. The only supported method of installing applications is via Apple's own App Store, a client for which is built into the device.

This requires each iPad user to download and install applications themselves, rather than being provisioned and configured by the IT department, as is standard practice with other platforms such as Windows PCs or even many smartphones.

Moreover, the only way to purchase applications from the App Store is via an iTunes account, whereas most organisations prefer to negotiate a volume licence agreement directly with the software publisher.

Some enterprise software vendors have circumvented this by making their application a free download from the App Store that must be activated through some other mechanism, or where the application is simply a client for some server-based software that is licensed separately, such as IBM's recently announced Lotus Notes Traveler, which is useless without a Domino mail server to connect to.

Perhaps more serious from a business perspective is that it is difficult to get files in and out of the iPad other than via email or by synchronising with iTunes on a PC or Mac. The device's sole I/O (other than Wi-Fi or 3G wireless) is the dock connector port, used to connect to a computer for iTunes synchronisation.

One option is via the web, and we found we could open some documents from file storage sites such as Windows Live Skydrive using the Safari browser, depending on whether it was a format supported by an application on the iPad. (Sadly, Microsoft's Office Web Apps do not let you edit files in Safari - we tried.)

This means that users can pull down documents from enterprise collaboration portals such as Microsoft's SharePoint, which is rapidly becoming almost ubiquitous in large organisations, provided they have installed a tool such as Apple's iWork suite for the iPad that supports these files.

However, there does not seem to be any easy way of uploading files back to the site. This is a shame, because iWork provides a set of quite decent productivity applications that can read and write Microsoft Office file formats, and would potentially make the iPad more appealing as an office tool if it integrated better with SharePoint.

Apple does offer its own web-based sharing service, iWork.com, which integrates directly with the applications in iWork. Businesses could potentially use this for collaboration, but firms already running SharePoint may not be keen to support a second parallel system just for the benefit of iPad owners.

The iPad does not provide any way for users to access files on the device other than through the application they are associated with. This appears to have been done for usability reasons, avoiding the need to deal with directory and folder structures, but could complicate any attempt to ensure that all files are backed up from iPads used by employees.

However, to Apple's credit, some of its iPad applications integrate well, so that the email client offers you the option to open an attached document in iWork, for example, while PDF attachments can be viewed directly in the mail client.

The iWork suite for the iPad consists of the Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheet and Keynote presentation tool, each of which is also available separately from the App Store.

We purchased and downloaded Pages, and were pleasantly surprised by how usable it was as a basic word processor, although using the touch-screen instead of a mouse to highlight and select text did not work the way we expected and took some getting used to.

However, we also quickly discovered the shortcomings of the touch screen for entering text. With the iPad's relatively large screen, the on-screen keyboard is correspondingly larger than those seen on a smartphone. This improves accuracy, but we found it difficult to type at any speed, except when using the device on our lap using the optional iPad Case to prop it up to a comfortable viewing angle.

Apple also sells an optional keyboard dock that provides a full Qwerty keyboard and holds the iPad at a comfortable angle for typing when on a desktop.

Another potential concern for enterprises is the Safari browser. Although this offers a good browsing experience on the web in general, it may not be compatible with some web-based enterprise applications. For example, we were unable to access V3.co.uk's web content management system using Safari.

On the plus side, Apple provides Exchange ActiveSync compatibility in its Mail client, and the iPad supports Lightweight Directory Access Protocol for directory lookups, plus common VPN protocols for accessing Exchange from outside the corporate firewall.

These settings and others can be configured through the use of a free-to-download Configuration Utility for Windows or Mac, which lets an administrator create a configuration file then distribute it to users, typically by email or uploading it to a web site.

The Configuration Utility was designed for configuring Apple's iPhone, so organisations officially supporting Apple's smartphone may already have this tool.

Overall, our impression of the iPad is that it is not designed for intensive productivity work, but is best suited as a mobile device for access to email and applications that do not call for a great deal of input, such as management dashboards or form filling.

The iPad does work well as a viewer for office documents and consumer electronic books downloaded via the iBooks application, so it could appeal to workers who want an email device with a decent sized screen to take on business trips.

However, perhaps the biggest factor that counts against widespread enterprise adoption of the iPad is that it is not capable of serving as a worker's sole business client, and its price tag (starting at £429, or £529 for both 3G and Wi-Fi) makes it pricey as a companion device to a PC or Mac, especially in the current economic climate.

If the iPad finds its way onto the corporate network, it is likely to be the same way as the iPhone did, with employees purchasing the device for themselves and expecting their IT department to support them using it for work.