Why The iPad Changes Everything For Business Computing

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has done it again. The iPod changed everything for music. The iPhone changed everything for phones. And the iPad changes everything for computing. And not just for kids or tech savvy consumers. For businesses. And for solution providers delivering the next generation of computing to corporate America.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus -- at least there is for geeks. And his name is Steve Jobs. Christmas comes in April for those geeks, Saturday, April 3 at 9 a.m. to be precise, at every Apple retail store across the country. That's when customers will officially be able to get their hands on the $499 iPad Tablet. Yes, the iPad is aimed at making a big splash with tech savvy consumers. But like the iPhone, the iPad is going to be increasingly used as a primary device for both professional and play by individuals of all kinds.

Think it's hyperbole? Think again. The research firm iSuppli is predicting shipments of more than 7 million iPads in 2010.

It's About The Internet Stupid

Jobs has once again gotten it right. Microsoft spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to make the Tablet PC a market force. But it just didn't have the user interface right. That mystical and magical ability to provide an amazing user experience is what Apple does best. Think of the iPad as the always on Internet or the Internet on the go. And then think of how many applications we are now running from the web on our smartphones or on a laptop. And then how much more appealing they are going to be on the iPad.

Make no mistake about it. This is another major paradigm shift. And this time look for the Apple copycats to spring into action a lot faster than they did with the iPhone. Here comes the Google Tablet.

Applications, Applications And More Applications

So far more than 2 billion applications have been downloaded from the Apple iPhone App Store. Those 2 billion applications are being moved by developers at a breakneck pace to the iPad.

Indeed, the iPad application explosion hit with a fury the day before the formal release of the iPad with everyone from the Iconfactory's popular Twitterific iPhone App moving to the iPad to a free version of Cisco's Webex online meeting application to a robust version of Wyse Technology's PocketCloud. It's all about applications. And the iPad has them right out of the gate.

A Bigger And Better Portable Internet

Jobs' timing couldn't be any better. The iPhone has already whetted the appetite of users accessing the Internet anywhere, anytime and anyplace from a small screen device. The iPad simply takes it to another level with a much larger and more appealing user Internet experience. Want to read your morning newspaper on the train? Pull Out Your iPad. Want to check your e-mail during a luncheon meeting? Pull Out Your iPad. Want to relax on your cross country flight by watching the latest hot DVD release? Pull Out Your iPad.

Look for the iPad to eat into PC and laptop sales. That's no small statement. But it is absolutely going to happen. It's the right price with the right functionality. And it is going to move into corporate America just like the Mac did when PCs ruled the earth.

Next: The Killer Cloud Business App

For those of you that have missed how the iPhone is being used to deliver private and public clouds, go right to Wyse Technology and check out the company's PocketCloud for the iPad and the iPhone.

Wyse's $30 app downloadable from the Apple App Store is right now being used on 10,000 Apple smartphones to access cloud applications of all kinds.

Tarken Maner, the hard-driving president and CEO of Wyse, sees that number growing by an order of magnitude with the release of Wyse's iPad PocketCloud application. "We will be on every iPad," boasts Maner. "This is the killer application. This is a Tablet business PC running Windows 7 on a Mac OS! How crazy is that."

Maner says that VARs that don't get on board and start moving customers to thin clients like iPad and smartphone are going to miss out on a major shift in how business is done in corporate America.

The Wyse iPhone PocketCloud is already being used by CIOs and VARs to perform fixes from far flung places on the corporate network. A CIO in Paris recently fixed a problem for his boss having e-mail troubles. Yes, from Paris. With an iPhone. Look for more of that activity to take place on the iPad. It's simply a much more convenient device and more appealing interface to get the job done.

Maner says he has seen business customers experience the iPad and they "love it."

"Business customers will buy it because they love the user interface," says Maner. "It's a great user experience. Now they can connect to their virtual desktop from a Tablet. This brings the iPad to the enterprise."

Maner, by the way, says Wyse has developed PocketCloud first for iPhone and now for iPad because of the rapid adoption of those platforms and because Apple has done a great job making it easy for software developers like Wyse to develop on the platform. He sees businesses replacing Blackberrys with iPhones. The question now is how many customers will want to replace laptops or PCs with the iPad?

VARs that don't realize that things have changed are going to be in for a rough ride. They need to get in front of the iPhone/ iPad phenomenon or they are going to be flattened by it.