Goodbye Keyboard?

By Brian Albright, Field Technologies magazine

Tablet computers are hot in the enterprise right now, with many end users in white or gray collar positions bringing their personal devices to work with them, and companies finding ways to creatively use the devices as laptop replacements. In its February 2011 report, "Tablet Demand and Disruption," Morgan Stanley predicted tablet shipments could reach 100 million by 2012.

But tablets have had a presence in the rugged computing market for years; many utilities and cable television companies have had tablet-based applications in place in their field service operations for more than a decade already. What's changing is that tablet technology now has a much higher profile in the executive offices, and that has led many companies to reevaluate their rugged computing platforms. Companies that traditionally have deployed rugged notebooks are giving tablets a second look.