Reminiscing the times when the iPad was nearing its launch, pundits and geeks alike have been making countless speculations of the fate of Apple’s new device — some positive, some otherwise. But all the same, Apple managed to blow people’s minds like they always have in the past, and tablets are now more popular than ever. Though I had lived an era without tablets, I can’t imagine a world without them from here onwards.

“Since the debut of Apple’s iPad in Jan. 2010, the integration of tablet devices into our lives and work has progressed rapidly — so fast that it’s sometimes hard to put in perspective how quickly it got here. The exclusively obtained infographic below breaks down how far workforce adoption of tablet technology has come — and where it’s headed. (The graphic was sponsored by Lenovo and Qualcomm).”

An interesting infographic called The State of Tablet Adoption at Work (see below) bears a few figures and comparisons that are quite noteworthy. Last year, 75 percent of workers have associated their professional life with some level of mobility. Highlighting the adoption better, from 16.1 million tablets shipped in 2010, it’s expected to swell to 147.2 million in 2015, and 1 in 3 US online consumers will be using a tablet by then. As such, American Airlines plans to release 6,000 tablet to offer in-flight entertainment to its first- and business-class passengers, while the University of Southern Mississippi will roll out one thousand tablets for its students and professors.

Moreover, a report released by IDG this week details the role of iPad in the lives of IT and business professional worldwide, as well as its impact on other technology sectors. All in all, 66 percent of respondents said their iPad has partially or completely substituted laptops, while three-fourths of the respondents say they “carry their laptop around less” because of the iPad.  Another 54 percent say their iPad has “partially replaced” their laptop, while it has gone mainstream as a partial substitute to laptops in Middle East (70 percent) and Asia (63 percent).

Moreover, as the Bring Your Own Device trend becomes increasingly popular since its initial implementation last month, mobile security firm Good Technology said iOS devices such as the iPad and iPhone are the top choices for mobile devices brought to work. It has also gone rampant in financial and healthcare sectors.

The software movement

VMWare has fashioned some new smartphone software that will allow Android users to switch in two different profiles as part of its BYOD adoption —one of which personal, the other professional. Dubbed as VMware Horizon, it has made appearance at CES in Las Vegas. VMware was one of the early companies to adopt the BYOD policy at work.

Quickoffice also makes sure it maintains its stance in the mobile enterprise by partnering with enterprise file management and file sharing partners. These includes Accellion, Copiun, GroupLogic, Stratosherix, Moprise, Egnyte, Alfresco and Oxygen Cloud. Quickoffice’s interoperability with the said services will allow users to instantaneously share documents and files to enhance productivity and workflow. At the moment, Quickoffice Pro HD and its family of cross-platform mobile office application is distributed on over 400 million devices and has captured 16 million registered users last year.