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Tablet Kiosks – The For and Against

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Tablets are an established part of our lives now – in education and certainly in the home, they are the way many of us interact with the web. Tablet sales keep going up, while the old-fashioned desk top PC suffers. Microsoft’s decision to make Windows 8 a tablet-orientated system a nd Google’s recent announcement that it was a ‘mobile first’ company only confirm what we already know.

But what about in the new range of tablet kiosks in business? Using tablets means a change in the way we work and there are pros and cons to every change.

The Pros

Tablets are smooth plastic objects. They have no moving parts, and IT support staff love them for just that reason. Nothing sticks out and nothing can be broken off or damaged. Anything that moves – from a laptop hinge to a hard drive – is likely to fail. Once you’re dealing with large numbers of machines, a small percentage failure can become a major headache and a huge cost.

They’re cheap too. Particularly when bought in bulk, tablets are a bargain compared to laptops and desktops. Even the most expensive tablet, the iPad, is relatively low in price when compared to a lot of laptops and other equipment.

Tablets are more controllable too. Because of their simplicity, it’s much easier for a business to create apps for the devices. This allows them to lock down what is and isn’t allowed on a tablet. Deploying tablets in kiosks makes them even more controllable – the user sees only a screen with a series of touch screen options controlled by the machine’s owner.

The arrival of onscreen capacitive keyboards has improved the process massively and very quickly. For employees who don’t input large amounts of data, the portability and ease of use of a tablet trump a keyboard every time.

The arrival of onscreen capacitive keyboards has improved the process of input massively and they have hit top notch quality very quickly. The lack of a keyboard is a downside for some employees, but for many a keyboard is an expensive waste of space and another set of opportunities for the machine to break down. For employees who don’t input large amounts of data, the portability and ease of use of a tablet trump a keyboard every time
In a business or retail setting however people consume more information than we create, and the tablet is the perfect media consumption device.

The Cons

Change is difficult. There are millions of words devoted to the subject, but they can all be boiled down to ‘we like to do things the way we are used to doing them’. Although tablets are super-easy to use and employees will probably use them perfectly happily at home, you are bound to encounter some resistance when you introduce tablets and ditch the mouse and keyboard.

They can walk. Portability is a double-edged sword. A tablet can be slipped into a bag and go missing very easily. Laptops had security people worried, tablets have them panicking. Tablet kiosks offer a versatile but also a very secure option for those electronic investments. The devices offer not only a small footprint, but security too. 

Of course, the versatility of the tablet and the tablet kiosk make it a really strong option for those looking to for a kiosk for their retail setting. Take a look at the pros and the cons and why not get in touch if you have any more questions.