‘Real Work’
Benedict Evans (via DF):
This brings us back to the mouse and keyboard that you ‘need for real work’, as the phrase goes. Yes, you really do need them to make a financial model. And you need them to make an operating metrics summary — in Excel and Powerpoint. But is that, really, what you need to be doing to achieve the underlying business purpose? Very few people’s job is literally ‘make Excel files’. And what if you spend the other 90% of your time on the road meeting clients and replying to emails? Do you need a laptop, or a tablet? Do you need a tablet as well as a smartphone? Or a laptop, or phablet? Or both?
This is what Microsoft is trying to convince people with their Surface tablets—that you can’t do ‘real work’ on a ‘regular tablet’ (read: iPad), yet you can.
Ironically, consumer-focused Apple is dominating mobile device sales in the enterprise market.