Executive Summary
The arrival of the iPad initiated a phase-change akin to the mini-computer and the mainframe, the PC and the mini-computer, and client/server and host-based computing. “Good tablets” – not the sort that preceded the iPad – are increasingly opening up new ways of working, expanding the means of delivery of both applications and data, and introducing a level of integrated convenience that previously was absent. IT is already pushing back. External (to IT) pressures, however, will ensure that “IT will have to swallow its tablets,” with diverse implications for IT development and operations. Tablet platform acceptance – as with previous evolutions like mainframe to mini-computer or mini-computer to PC – brings out IT’s innate conservatism. Many in IT will resist tablet adoption. As in those earlier technology evolutions, there are plenty of good reasons for IT to push back.