When Free Costs More: A Paradox In The Rugged Vs. Nonrugged Debate

By Matt Miller, president, MobileDemand, www.ruggedtabletpc.com

Research shows that “free” devices really aren’t free at all.

Yes, that is correct — free will cost more. Even if a business acquires iPads for free and deploys them in certain line-ofbusiness functions, it will end up costing more than double than if the company had purchased rugged tablets at full price. Free costs more. It seems like a paradox, but only when one ignores the costs associated with failures due to productivity loss and the limited capabilities of consumerbuilt devices like the iPad. Real field experience and research, like the VDC Research study released in March 2013 titled Mobile Device TCO Models for Line of Business Solutions, are proving there are costs often overlooked that challenge this paradox.