That just barely scratches the ‘surface’ (pardon the pun) of the choices available right now. The iPad is a pretty stable beast and has the iCloud available for backup. This is nice, but how easy is it to do business on? Can your foreman in the field easily update an Excel spreadsheet on it? You also have the Androids to contend with. The models and price ranges are all over the map. To name a few, you have the ridiculously expensive Samsung Galaxy, two versions of Kindle Fire, Google Nexus, and the list goes on and on. I am honestly surprised my grocery store hasn’t come out with its own store-brand version of an Android tablet. I guess the point I am trying to make here is that IT is having to deal with all of these devices making their way in to the business’ front doors. All of these devices can pretty much do the same things. The hard part is deciding which device has more staying power and will provide more stability in the work environment.

Conclusion

The tablet/smartphone industry believes they are doing a good thing by providing consumers more choice. However, I believe this Christmas shopping season is going to be one of the most confusing times for the average consumer. It’s also going to be a challenge for the salesperson in the big box stores who have to try to convince a customer which tablet is best suited for them to play Angry Birds on. I feel most sorry for the CIO’s and IT managers. On December 26th, all of these people are going to stroll into work with all of these nifty new devices expecting IT to make them work in their organization. For those CIO’s whose CEO’s haven’t taken seriously the need for a BYOD policy, they have a nightmare brewing on their hands I’m afraid. So if you show up to work after Christmas 2012 and the IT department is nowhere to be found, now you know why.