Gartner: No reason to delay tablets

Businesses shouldn't delay in implementing tablets or they might fall behind their competitors.

This was the claim made by analyst firm Gartner in its latest report released today which said, despite the risks they might pose, tablets were "here to stay" and needed to be used to their full advantage.

David Willis, research vice president at Gartner, claimed chief information officers (CIOs) were "determined" to refrain from making the same mistakes they made when it came to bringing smartphones into the corporate environment.

He said companies who didn't accept them lost out to "more inventive leaders who saw the competitive advantage that mobile applications would bring."

"Consumerisation is here to stay, and moving very fast," he said. "If you can think of an application for tablets, your competition may well be thinking in the same way and acting on it."

"It is time to explore the use of media tablets in business."

Despite reaching nowhere near the same predictions of sales as smartphones this year Gartner claimed 69 million tablets were likely to be sold in 2011 the report suggested the actual device was only one element of the story.

The software had a major part to play and has impacted more familiar form factors within business, such as smartphones and netbooks.

"Fundamentally, the market battle will not hinge on features and specifications; on the fit and finish of a given device; or even on a device at all," Willis added.

"The platform that will prevail will have a strong supporting ecosystem of developers producing a wide range of applications. And in this area, Apple is far ahead of any competition."

However, the report concluded, no matter how popular, tablets were not set to replace either PCs as primary work machines or mobiles as voice communicators.