The Entrepreneur Expedition: Tablets In Business Ep. 106. In this week’s podcast, we will be talking about why tablets can and perhaps should replace some laptops within your company.
What’s up, everyone? This is Alex Iglesias, and you’re listening to another week of The Entrepreneur Expedition. This week I’m going to be talking about tablets, and more specifically, why I really think — and I really think this — that tablets can and should replace some of the laptops at your business in your office, wherever that may be. Whether it’s a central location with an actual office, or you’ve got people telecommuting, tablets can replace… Oh gee, aha, tablets are so powerful now and people don’t even realize it.
So let me just cut to the chase here I’m going to break this down as a couple — just, you know, a couple of general points about price, portability and functionality, but then I’m really going to get into the meat of my argument. Because I’m definitely making an argument here — this is not this is not a common thing. Most people don’t feel this way. It’s because they don’t use; they don’t know.
Anyways so first off price when you look at tablet prices versus laptop prices you’re going to notice obviously one is notably cheaper than the other it doesn’t matter what hardware ecosystem you’re using this is a general rule tablets are going to be cheaper granted you do have when you especially when you compare cross-platform so if you compare Dell computers to an iPad pro 12 point 9 inch fully spec down with four left with 512 gigabytes of solid-state storage sure the iPad might be more expensive but the iPad is going to be better than that computer trust me the only limitation it might have is software so it can be your own but you know if you’re if you do planning if you plan accordingly and all that stuff you should be able to figure out if tablets can do that but anyways back to the point price your tablets are going to be cheaper in general and you’re going to get more bang for your buck really you’re going to get better hardware you’re going to get better specs than those computers.
I swear to God, for the sake of Technology, if you buy a laptop that ranges between 300 and 600 dollars stop. Just stop. I mean those are going to it’s going to feed trash but the good news is that most tablets actually range from 300 to 600 dollars. Again, you can get expensive tablets. Microsoft Surface pro 6 just came out recently, that’s expensive; iPad pro they’ve got new ones coming out. Lord help me, I don’t know what the prices are going to be but the old ones are expensive, it happens, but they’re amazing devices and I’ll cover that later. But as a general rule tablets are cheaper everyone knows this moving on to portability also things that people already know this is a reason that people buy tablets for consumer purposes is their portability you can get sorry you can get you know a good device that does a lot it looks great the screen is great and they’re only about you know 9 inches long or 10 inches long you’re not really going to find a lot of type of laptops that are that small.
I used to have a 12-inch MacBook and the screen you know for some reason to me it felt smaller I think it’s because of the way laptops are the screen actually felt smaller to me on that then on my 10 and 1/2 inch iPad but you know again people buy laptops are becoming increasingly more portable but tablets will always win tablets are becoming increasingly more forward themselves again I’m a huge Mac and iOS Apple fan so I know a lot of the specs off and dimensions off the top of my head I believe the current Mac or the current iPad pro is 6.1 millimeters thick which is tiny and the new model is going to be about 5.9 a little bit under five point nine millimeters does it get more does it get more portable than does it get more practical does it get more usable whether you’re on your whether you’re on the couch on the weekend trying to do some work that you couldn’t catch up on earlier in the week or maybe you just decided since you’re you have a flexible employer that you’re going to do some work on weekends or if you’re on a flight or if you’re just like a lot of modern workplace employees you like to move around a bit not not move around job to job I mean that is also a trend but I’m not here to talk about that but I’m talking about physically like moving around in the office people love to do that. You know tablets are great for that.
Functionality
The third point — functionality. People are still stuck — in my mind — people are still stuck in 2015, 2014, 2013. The first iPad came out with 256 megabytes of RAM that’s awful if you know anything about computer specs that’s awful I mean it worked fine for what it was I didn’t have the first generation iPad now maybe that was that wasn’t 2013 that that came out that was whatever whatever it doesn’t matter when it came out the thing is 2010 the first iPad had 256 megabytes of RAM the iPad pro has four gigabytes of RAM whoa that’s starting to sound like a tablet or like a laptop yeah yeah it is I can guarantee that somewhere along the line these iPad pros are going to be up around 8 which is standard for laptops Microsoft Surface already I think has 8 gigabytes of RAM I think can configured up to 16 granted the Microsoft Surface is a little bit is notably more laptop like than the iPad because it runs a full desk the Microsoft Surface does run full Windows 10 desktop software and everything would potentially yeah probably gives it an edge even in functionality the iPad the the surface has no limitations for functionality actually and neither does the iPad the only problem with the iPad is that it does have a look it is a little bit closed source with some of the apps that come on it but nine but they’re you know it’s it’s very seldom that you find an app or if there’s a software that that can’t work on an iPad unless it’s a specialized software.
But again, iPad Pro 6 core processor — does your laptop has have a 6 core processes? They’re probably not — mine doesn’t and I’ve got a MacBook Pro and I don’t have a 6 core processor. Again, comparable specs I’m pretty sure exists in the in the surface I’m not sure if they go up to 6 cores but definitely quad core quad core i5 i7 apples chips or just as good or better than some Intel chips you know people still just think they think that tablets are something to check the internet and watch Netflix on that’s not the case anymore people are rendering 4k videos there are a lot of blogs and YouTube videos out there talking with people talking about how they have a notably easier time a faster time a more enjoyable time rendering and editing 4k video on an iPad pro versus on a MacBook or an iMac actually maybe not the iMac yeah it doesn’t matter it doesn’t matter that doesn’t matter what I’m saying is the people not only can they but they like to use tablets now for these types of things so if people are doing it in their personal lives if I’m sitting here saying you know I’m going to record demos for my band on an iPad why aren’t people making the jump over into the corporate world with the capabilities and the functionalities of tablets another it’s just food for thought or anything there’s no answer I don’t have an answer other than tradition and other than just general misconceptions about what tablets can do.
Another thing that people don’t think about is the productivity in general on a tablet in my personal experience and the experiences of others who I’ve asked is better on a tablet than on a laptop. Now the reason for me, at least, and I think this this probably applies across, you know, everyone who feels this way. it’s a nice thing sometimes that the tablet is less capable of multitasking and that’s also a great thing that the tablet is capable of multitasking I can run my spreadsheets next to my email browser next to my Windows my you know my internet browser or whatever I want to do I can have two spreadsheets open at the same time next to each other a Word and Excel like who knows the possibilities are endless there is a lot of multitasking ability but there’s not too much multitasking ability because this is what the biggest blow to productivity is one of the biggest blows to productivity is people getting distracted if you’re working on something but you can also have you know three other tabs open you can have Netflix roaming while you’ve got Facebook open and then Twitter’s took their way somewhere in the back corner and you’re trying to write up a document for your boss how’s that going to turn out let’s be let’s be honest here how is that going to work out and people are all about employers these days are all about giving flexibility there’s an increased amount of flexibility to workers particularly younger workers with their hours with their with the things that they’re kind of allowed to get away with a little bit on the clock and as younger people become older and become bosses you know it’s just going to get is going to get more likes and more likes and more likes which is fine I I look forward to that day.
That’s the type of culture I’m trying to perpetuate in my own company, but again, not what I’m talking about here. People work better on tablets you can’t do all of that crap I sat down the other day and wrote you know I wrote a blog from our street just staring zoned in on that screen and I it’s not like I was writing something that was absolutely fascinating to me but it’s all I was looking at it’s all I was there to do I was looking at my task at hand if I was writing something and I needed to pull up another tab I certainly could I had no problem running you know having the the browser next to my word processor it did not slow me down it didn’t mess me up if you need the full screen there’s a lot of gestures on all of these tablets for switching back and forth between things so you can check you can go on the internet and then swipe right back to what else whatever else you were doing if you needed to do a quick look up every single tablet on the market now has a built in virtual assistant which is really nice you know if you’re riding and you’re like oh you know hey hey Google or Cortana or whoever Alexa what is this what does this mean you know stuff like that and so I’m talking about all this stuff I’m saying productivity is going to be better people can zoom in better on work and you’re going to sit there and say well I can’t do all my work on a tablet.
First off, I don’t want to because it’s small I get it that’s fine also there do exist bigger tablets than ten and a half inches you can get a 13 almost 13 inch iPad pro you can get I think the Microsoft Surface is around 12 inches which is adequate and I believe most of these things can hook up to external monitors too if you need like extra space to just look or whatever but you’re probably sitting there thinking I can’t do my whole job on a tablet it doesn’t support everything going to do yes that might be true that’s the case for me too there’s a lot of stuff I need to do on my computer that I can’t do on a tablet but I have a specialized job and even though a lot of people want to feel special a lot of people like to feel special; they want to think that what they do is super cool and everything — and I’m sure it is it is really cool — but most people don’t need computers most people aren’t doing things that are so intricate and so crazy that they need a laptop or a desktop computer at work most people can really run most things on a tablet.
I do about — I probably already said this — I don’t know if I said it, yet — I do 85% of my work all of my financial work, my whatever the heck I’m doing, I do 85 percent on my lap on my tablet, and the other 15% that I do on my computer is either if my eyes get tired of looking at a ten and a half-inch screen. Which is true, it is true, it’s a possible reason if you have really bad eyes, but it’s either if I don’t want to work on the tablet anymore — if I want to give my laptop some love, in general, or if I’m you know dealing with huge amounts of data or something like that. And there are there are apps like QuickBooks — on the tablet is not as good as QuickBooks on a desktop. I get it, that’s a real thing. But, you know, your secretary or some of these other people — maybe not even your secretary but depending on what type of work your company does — you don’t need people it, shoot, especially if you do graphic design.
You people should be using tablets. But you know I think I’ve gotten my point across tablets are very functional tablets are very good productivity devices especially if you get something that has Pro in the name I don’t believe that Google slate has a pro version but I do understand that the Google slate is a really good tablet it’s cheaper than an iPad pro to the Microsoft Surface is amazing for business probably I don’t have one but I’ve played with them before I’ve seen them I’ve seen them in action you know Microsoft surfaces are probably really the way to go if you’re thinking about switching over to tablets but again iPads are amazing to my iPad pro is amazing and the new ones are going to be even better hopefully but you know that’s that’s really that’s it I’m done talking I hope I’ve made my case hopefully you can kind of see where I’m coming from just just go home or if you’re already at home you know wherever you are just turn this turn this podcast on and think about it next time you bring in and bringing in a new employee or you need to update some hardware at your office just think about this like could this person get by on the tablet because the answer is probably yes unless you have some super intricate system or software that they have to use they can probably get by on a tablet.
And with that thanks for listening. Once again this is Alex Iglesias, and thank you for tuning in to this week’s episode of The Entrepreneur Expedition see you next week.