UPDATED 11:22 EDT / OCTOBER 25 2012

What Does the iPad Mini Mean for Students? Workers?

Many of us are more interested in purchasing a tablet rather than a laptop or netbook because of their portability and increased functionality.  But the tablet market has now two sectors, the big – almost as big as a laptop’s screen, and the small – which you can hold in one hand while the other taps away on the screen.

But with the emergence of small tablets, what does this actually mean for consumers in general?  Or for the business and education sectors?

Tablets, the big ones, are usually left at home for personal use as some people actually deem it as too big to be taken to work or school everyday.  But the 7.+” tablets seem to be just the right size and weight, and more people are seeing the benefits of a smaller tablet.  Because of this, analysts are seeing a rising trend in bringing small tablets for work use or for school use.  Plus, smaller tablets cost less, and we expect the holiday shopping season to really spur mini tablet purchases.

As you know, Apple recently unveiled their 7.9″ iPad Mini that costs $329 for the base model, which is the 16GB WiFi only version that features a dual-core A5 chip, a 1.2MP FaceTime camera, a 5MP iSight camera, the new Lightning connector and of course, iOS 6, the Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating.  No Retina Display, sorry to disappoint Apple fans out there.

According to some reports, when the iPad 3 was launched, the iPad 2’s sales soared when its price dropped, and the K-12 market showed great demand for these cheaper tablets.  According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the company has been aggressively going after the K-12 market, noting that no other tablet brand has made such an impact on the education system aside from the iPad.

“The adoption rate of iPad in education is something I’d never seen from any technology product in history,” Cook said during that Q3 earnings call. “Usually, education tends to be fairly conservative in terms of buying, or K-12 does, and we’re not seeing that at all on the iPad.”

And because of the introduction of the iPad Mini with a lower price tag, more schools will be able to afford them for use in classrooms, or for their e-programs wherein they provide one tablet (this used to be one laptop) per child to help them with their schooling.

But Apple isn’t just focusing on the education system.  They also want their tablets to be enterprise ready.  Though some companies already allow personal tablets for use at work, Apple wants to be the default for companies that give their employees tablets certified for work use.

According to reports, Apple and VMware teamed up to provide iPads with access to an online version of Apple’s iWork, a suite of office applications, so that the tablets can be enterprise ready.  Apple is not stopping at that, they want to replace Microsoft Office as the primary business tool used in the office.  By making their office applications ready and available for people to use, even on their iPad, interest will grow around Apple software, and wean for Microsoft.

“The iPad mini is another major milestone in the on-going trend of users moving from PCs to tablets and VMware expects it will accelerate the adoption of tablets among organizations of all sizes due to its lower price point, especially SMBs,” Srinivas Krishnamurti, VMware’s senior director of mobile solutions, said. “IT administrators we’ve talked to are looking for a holistic approach similar to Horizon Suite to provide apps, data and services to users who use personal devices for both work and play.”

Apple hasn’t penetrated the enterprise sector very deep when the late Steve Jobs was in charge, but corporate America (and beyond) really saw the potential in the iPad.  The enterprise and education alike have become promising sectors, with the iPad acting as a catalyst for workforce reform, lending to BYOD trends, new capabilities in education and a fresh future for work, knowledge acquisition and more.


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