Apart from the Games, 2012 is set to be the year the tablet PC climbs to Olympian heights all of its’ own! New business applications are set to further propel handheld computers into the serious workflow systems essential to most of today’s enterprise sectors, from manufacturing and construction to public service providers in healthcare and education.

We have already witnessed how tablet PCs have overturned the netbook in just 18 months and we could now really see the laptop consigned to the same status and usage as the deskbound PC and even the TV. According to recent surveys, 35 per cent of UK tablet owners watch video-on-demand, 40 per cent streamed content, e.g. music tracks and nearly 40 per watched TV on their handheld PC, thereby reducing PC-based media consumption by 15 per cent.

Purchasing online has risen to 50 per cent by those who said they were more likely to purchase an item using their tablet PC compared against those who just owned a mobile. The uber cool UMPC or heavy duty rugged tablet PC has fast become the essential touchscreen tool for accessing online and app, and consuming media on the move wherever you are sitting, standing, leaning or lounging ...

But the key breakthrough from leisure and “off-duty” usage to a mainstream industry mobile utility is set to gain a boost in the year ahead, impacting upon Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Managment (SCM). Tablet PC manufacturers are poised to unleash software applications adapted to individual enterprise requirements. It will be the task of each organisation to assess each app based upon usability, functionality, business and system integration, management and security, etc.

Tablets are already in key workplaces performing vital tasks of instant access to online data, key documents, databases, files and reports at the hospital bedside, lecture theatre, shopfloor, warehouse, on the road, in the air or out to sea.

Global IT research leaders, Gartner, have now compiled their top ten business applications for tablet PCs, which highlights the way they can be seriously used in all types of industries :

The Gartner Top 10 Tablet PC Apps.

• Customer sales automation, presentation and ordering.
• Business intelligence supplying analysis and performance with management dashboards.
• Email separation to isolate corporate from personal messaging.
• Collaborative use for meetings.
• File utilities for document sharing and distribution.
• General corporate and government enterprise function for CRM, ERP, SCM and messaging.
• Medical support systems for doctors, nurses and physical therapists.
• Hosted virtual desktop agents providing secure remote operation of a traditional desktop PC ecosystem.
• Social networking with intelligent business insight.
• Board books for secure document and report distribution.

Latest research by Gartner predicts that worldwide tablet PC sales will hit 63.6 million units in 2011, a 261.4 per cent increase on 2010 sales of 17.6 million units, to reach 326.3 million units by the end of 2015.

As the festive season swings into view, a new industry survey of over 1,200 UK mobile device users reveals that Christmas gifts will be purchased by at least 50 per cent of smartphone and tablet PC owners, a rise of nearly 25 per cent on 2010.

With a further third who say they also intend to book a holiday or other forms of travel, using a handy handheld PC for ‘work, rest or play’ is not an activity confined to consuming chocolate bars in 2012!

Indeed, within a wide variety of workplaces, using handheld computers is rapidly becoming the smart way to access and engage with all the essential data files and media content at-work or on the move - business, personal or social.

In a separate study of 1,200 IT managers, nearly one in five, or nearly 20 per cent of UK companies already use tablet PCs - nearly three quarters being owned by the employees themselves.

Despite the UMPC marketplace gaining rapid takeup by the social, leisure and media consumer and has been dominated by the most well-known global brands from their launch in 2010, one of the reasons that wider business or public sector adoption has been slower is simply because of lack of a Microsoft operating system for the overwhelming majority of users.

The launch of Windows 8 in 2012 will enable enterprises and organisations, private and public, to discover the extensive range of versatile possibilities offered in the form of rugged tablet PCs and digitizer pen tablet PCs as well as touch screen tablet PCs and dual mode tablet pcs many alternative quality brands already supply to key industry sectors such as healthcare, construction, manufacturing, retail distribution and research.
 
As is often found, SMEs appear once again to be more agile and responsive to technology developments and the key benefits they bring to project enterprises and mission-critical deadlines as employees use their own personal handheld computers for work applications.

However, with a survey conducted in Q3 2011 indicating that at least nine out of ten companies plan to invest in tablet PCs for staff use, IT market analysts forecast that sales of handheld PCs will increase by nearly 40 per cent to reach 72.4 million in 2012, up from 51.9 million units in 2011.

Around one-fifth of the predicted 400 million global sales of tablet PCs are likely to be purchased by corporate users by 2016.

Now that’s a Christmas present that everyone can look forward to getting their hands on as the IT procurement Santa swings on by this season’s end!

Tablet PCs top netbook sales!

Latest industry figures reveal that 2011 really was the year of the tablet PC as UK sales of nearly 14 million units during the summer months were nearly double the number of netbooks sold at just over 7 million. Overall, the handheld PC has also been selling double the amount of units since the start of the year and market analysts predict that worldwide, sales will be in excess of 60 million in 2012! 

There’s no doubt the growing love affair with handheld computers is set to become a match made in heaven!

Users with an endless appetite for consuming media, news, networking and movie watching are now married to either their ultra portable 7in or enhanced scale 10in glare-free Gorilla glass tablet PC with an assured battery life of 8 or even 10 hours and a robust, shock proof body.

Purchased as an UMPC for the tech-savvy mobile worker or a rugged tablet PC for the public service and commercial user, tablet PCs have become essential, multi-tasking tools to access the web, retrieve, view, share and display vital data files and communicate. In 2011, mindsets were changed and the tablet PC is no longer viewed as an optional gadget but as vital mobile technology for key tasks wherever needed, whatever the circumstances.

Looking ahead to 2012, mobile POS and retail distribution seems set to undergo a transformation as key decision-makers recognise that the tablet PC is ideally placed to support customers by enhancing the instore experience throughout the entire purchasing lifecycle.

Key to the rising popularity of handheld computers with users is the development of touchscreen tablet PCs from the digitizer pen tablet PC. As a result, retail organisations can see a real opportunity to either migrate existing applications or create entirely new capabilities for a mobile platform.

An ultra mobile solution is supplied by a tablet PC, which can support or drive each element, process and decision in a seamless streamlining of the multiple meeting points of product, inventory, supplier, vendor and consumer. Among the many strategic benefits is the real time access to information and instant communication for increased productivity and reduced time expended in instore information gathering.

Access to warehouse/stockroom inventory data enables increased shelf restocking efficiency leading to higher sales and customer satisfaction plus encouraged return visits.

While a tablet PC as mobile POS improves checkout speed and efficiency, and supports a higher level of service through the entire purchasing/transaction lifecycle, digitizer pen tablet PCs can also be implemented to support on-the-floor sales requiring signature capture for special orders, receipts and other customer-facing transactions. 

The likelihood is that from 2012 onwards, static POS terminals and checkouts could be replaced, for example, by dual mode tablet PCs allowing greater flexibility for store spaces to adapt to fluctuations in footfall, stockholding and staff levels.

The tablet PC got serious in 2010! Heralded by leading brand manufacturers, just 18 months later, the well-known acts of mobile technology are joined alongside by niche market producers such as Motion Computing and Paceblade as they introduced their tablet PCs into key areas of professional application.

Suddenly, laptops and netbooks started to look decidely heavy, bulky and uncool even, as the lightweight, highly mobile touchscreen handheld pc was seen as the platform of choice for web access, email and media consumption at home, on the move or at work. IT market analysts are predicting that sales of handheld computers will reach 72.4 million in 2012, up from 51.9 million units in 2011.

But as key private industries in manufacturing and retail distribution, and public bodies such as healthcare and education saw the value of a rugged tablet pc in demanding workplace environments, both inside and outside, all types of organisations recognise the super-enhanced portability potential of the UMPC. Even as laptops may still be reserved for more intensive computing and file / media  editing, they are now as likely to be on the move from just one room to another or office to office!

However, even as businesses embrace tablet PC technology as an invaluable asset to improved efficiency and raised productivity with their personnel,  issues over attention distraction and security have been raised by concerned employers. Boundaries between personal, social and business can sometimes blur, and whereas previously,  ‘secured’ company laptops would be issued to staff, now employees are now just as likely to bring their tablet PCs to work.

However, a survey conducted in October 2011 revealed that at least nine out of ten organisations are planning to invest in tablet PCs for company use, which are likely to see certain functions disabled to prevent staff being distracted by non-work related activity.

It should also not be forgotten, of course, that websites are now heavily involved in the process of adapting their functionality and design to a new set of standards and developing style techniques for fast, easy access to tablet and mobile, including methods of distributing audio, video  and language programming.

In addition, the mobile app is now seen as indispensable for specific information downloading on tablet PCs, as well as smartphone. According to one recent survey, around 45 per cent of respondents stated that they would sooner give up sports, coffee or Facebook before giving up their tablet PC news apps!

A sure sign that in the space of less than 18 months tablet PCs have become essential to everyday work/life existence!

Tablets are on everyone’s lips! Or to be more accurate, a great deal of the tech talk in 2011 has been about tablets PCs. And not just the usual suspects. According to various industry analysts, current domination of the tablet PC arena by the most well known brand/s could be lost within three years.

Business enterprises, from manufacturing and retail distribution to high street services providers, are now increasingly adopting handheld computers from a variety of brands and dedicated manufacturers, as their essential mobile PC device in the workplace.

According to one survey, over three quarters of the UK’s 1.5 million tablet owners already use their handheld PC for at least 90 minutes daily, over half for accessing email and receiving news as well as searching online, social networking and media consumption. Data collected suggests that PC tablet users tend to be college educated, higher income employed and from a broad age range, the majority aged above 30.

The findings may be substantiated by the increasing number of tablets PCs finding their way into professional hands in the finance industry, healthcare, education and government departments. In national and public services, rugged tablet pcs are tough, as well as portable in all weather, all location access to internet, vital applications and crucial data files.

Replacing physical paperwork in any working environment has become a prime objective and yet there are many occasions when carrying a heavy, bulky laptop or netbook is not really necessary when quick access to online, cloud, organisation intranet, file sharing or person to person screen display is simply required.

In the field, rugged tablet PCs are becoming indispensable replacements for paper-based flight bags in aviation cockpits, daily scheduling and back up in emergency services vehicles. With a glare free, high visibility screen, fast charging long battery life, and water resistant, shock and drop proof body to withstand any handling, the tablet PC is the ultimate portable lightweight info device for when the going gets tough!

Connectivity options include  wireless broadband, integrated GPS and bluetooth. This means that any individual, from sales teams and management execs to service engineers and technicians working in any industry, can be armed with UMPC and uniquely developed apps and can have all the necessary data, spec, info and online access  at their fingertips wherever needed, under any circumstance.

The tablet PC is already the preferred platform over desktop, laptop and smartphone for daily news and media consumption. The demand for tablet PCs as the ideal on the move technology solution with their larger, screen viewing capability and unhindered, user-friendly fingertip control looks set to become the universal workhorse for online access in the workplace too.