Tablet sales may have bottomed out for consumers, but when it comes to the enterprise, the skies are blue - So concludes a recent survey by Strategy Analytics, which says that overall, tablet sales will increase by 7% in 2016, led by enterprises buying tablets for a variety of purposes. That 7% increase will come after tablet sales will fall by 4% in 2015, the survey concludes.
A major factor driving the enterprise growth, the report says, is the release of Windows 10 this summer. Also important is the upcoming release of Microsoft's Surface 4 tablet, which when used with a detachable keyboard does double-duty as a laptop.
Eric Smith, Senior Analyst, Tablet & Touchscreen Strategies for Strategy Analytics explains, "As reports swirl about the impending release of the Surface Pro 4, we see Microsoft leading the growing pack of professional grade tablets running Windows 10. The release of Windows 10 in July provided opportunities at the high-end to better position tablets against PCs on productivity needs and compatibility with the office setting,"
Why tablets are important in the enterprise
Tablets are important in the enterprise not just because they can do double-duty as laptops. Increasingly, employees use tablets as their primary computing device, or in addition to a desktop PC.
In many instances, that's not just because of productivity apps, or because Microsoft Office now runs on tablets. It's because of the importance of tablet-based forms. These forms aren't the familiar ones that have been used for years. Those old forms largely mimic paper-based ones. Although they may save time, they don't take advantage of a tablet's unique features.
Instead, as Alpha Software CTO Dan Bricklin explains, these new forms "are applications that run on the tablet and can take advantage of a wide range of input types, that can have input means that are tailored to the needs of the particular data type and data values being entered, that can have layouts that are flexible, and that are customizable to the needs of the particular task."
Given the expected growth of tablets in the enterprise, developers would do well to write these new types of forms for them. They can get a start now. Alpha Anywhere has a beta with new features that make it easy to develop these tablet-optimized forms. You can register to get the beta here.
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