It's hard to avoid having a cynical outlook when considering the hype surrounding Apple's iPad, coming to the the market in 2010.  Yet even though it generates a buzz like no other business today, the long-term impact of Apple's products often far exceeds the lofty expectations placed on them.  Take the ubiqitious iPod, which many people dismissed, questioning why anyone would want to carry that much music.  Similarly, no one envisaged the rapid rise of digital music consumption, a shift spearheaded by iTunes which recently reached the milestone of 10 billion songs sold. 

The iPhone is still relatively young, yet few would argue against its claim to have raised the bar in terms of what we expect from a mobile phone, with an ever-growing list of products being released trying to better Apple's creation.

The iPad could be the next in the line to realign thinking and expectation around products.  Yet unlike the iPod and iTunes, and to a lesser degree the iPhone, Apple's tablet has the potential to usher in a new era of computing in the business space.

The iPad is a tablet computer developed by Apple Inc. Announced on January 27, 2010, it is designed to create a new device category between a smartphone and a laptop computer. Similar in functionality to a larger and more powerful iPhone or iPod touch, it runs a modified version of the same operating system (iPhone OS). Its stock applications have been redesigned to take advantage of the larger screen with added functionality similar to their Mac OSX counterparts.

The iPad has a 9.7-inch (25 cm) LED backlit multi-touch display with a pixel resolution of 1024x768, 16 to 64 gigabytes (GB) of flash memory, a 1-gigahertz (GHz) Apple A4 processor, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 30-pin dock connector to sync with iTunes and connect wired accessories.

Two models have been announced: one with 802.11n Wi-Fi and one with 802.11n Wi-Fi and 3G (which can connect to HSDPA cellular networks), and Assisted GPS. Both models may be purchased with three different memory capacities.

By stripping away the endless and unused applications that clog up the majority of computers and instead give people what they want from a modern computer; media, internet, games, productivity, and an intuitive interface, Apple may be tapping into the zeitgeist of IT users everywhere before it even happens.

Take software delivery for example.  Apple has rebuilt its version of Office (iWork) for the iPad, meaning that users can create business documents through a nifty touchscreen interface.  The three applications; Pages (word processing), Keynote (slideshows) and Numbers (spreadsheets), will cost roughly £10 each, and are downloaded direct to the device through the App store through either wifi or 3G.  Contrast this against the complexity of installing new software throughout an enterprise in a traditional way, it is easy to see how the simplicity may be appealing to users.

IT service and support teams may be less enthusiastic, fearing that reduced complexity puts them out of a job.  This attitude shows a lack of foresight.  Mobile computing throws up a host of other issues: centralisation and standardisation of data, permissions for downloading software, security, remote support, asset management, to name a few – in other words, there will be plenty of work to do.

But most importantly, understanding that business users may want a simplified, targeted computing experience is an important step for IT teams to take if they are to begin delivering services what the business actually needs.