You’ve done a good job, Apple but we’ll take over from here, a Dell exec appeared to tell a journalist at CIO this week, claiming the iPad will fail spectacularly as a business device.
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Although Steve Jobs’ giant single handedly created the tablet sector and has the consumer market sussed, the Dell boss seems to think the tab won’t cut the mustard among business clientele, branding it an overpriced device with a closed OS and good only if users “live on an island,” Robinson Crusoe style.
The Dell exec is undoubtedly referring to the iPad’s lack of connectivity with other non-Apple devices.
“Apple is great if you’ve got a lot of money and live on an island.. It’s not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex.”
And the fact most tab users aren’t islanders, is not all that should be keeping one of the world’s most valued companies awake at night.
With Android hot on its tails the challenges facing the tech co are looming fast, Lark believes.
Apple have “done a really nice job, they’ve got a great product, but the challenge they’ve got is that already Android is outpacing them.”
“I couldn’t be happier that Apple has created a market and built up enthusiasm but longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary,” said Andy Lark, DEll Head of Marketing for Large Enterprise.
And Apple’s weakness is Dell’s gain. Lark is confident he has a strong foothold in the tabs enterprise market, and admits his company has, “taken a very considered approach to tablets, given that the vast majority of our business isn’t in the consumer space.”
However, earlier this year, the world’s third largest PC maker said it was “counting on the consumer business to deliver and improve margins,” according to its CFO Brian Gladden.
Dell are to go head to head with the iPad 2 later this year, pursuing “a multi-OS” strategy with tabs on both Android and Windows 7.
“We will do Windows 7 coupled with Android Honeycomb, and we’re really excited. We think that giving people that choice is very important.”
