Next Gen Business Phones to be Tablets

The idea of using a simplified tablet as a business phone for work exemplifies assistance to you. You can use it for emailing, note-making, slideshows, web surfing, and other business related work, at least if you do not depend on complicated spreadsheets or physical input. Tablets are any day better in appearance than tiny screens of smart-phones and they're better for your back than tugging a laptop.

Operating System

When buying a business phone, the first thing to consider is the OS and the application environment you're buying into. Today, the tablet operating system wars have two big competitors: iPad-2’s ios and on almost “everything else” the Android.

Also in the mix, on few of tablets, is the Windows 7. Windows based tabs haven't been very successful due to several issues, but mostly because Windows, whether it's Windows XP, Vista, or 7, is the optimal OS for such a device. While Windows 7 wasn't designed for tabs, it performs considerably better than you may think of supporting tapping with swiping, given the miniature icons and messy menus it must work with. With a pad that accepts stylus input, it enhances workability. We expect Windows 8 tablets that will have the finger-customized tablets to come later this year which will improve Microsoft’s situation.

In spite of the user-interface problems, if you're using any kind of vertical Windows application, or rely upon some of Microsoft Office's deeper features, a Windows 7 slate is your only real choice for comprehensive business use.

For general tablet use, Apple's iOS or Google's Android makes a better choice in most cases than a Windows 7 tablet. Some tablets, such as view-pad 10, dual-boot to Android and Windows 7. If you are really interested in using marketplace and all those 3rd party interesting apps, this could be a better solution than a Windows only tablet.
Business Applications

Using Windows 7, it’s possible to install any app available for that Operating system. For iOS and Android, you're more limited in your choice of business applications, but not as much as you might think.

As for applications relating to productivity, iOS has the iwork for the iPad suite, which does a adequate job with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations that are compatible with Microsoft Office. Docs-To-Go and QuickOffice are among the office suites available for both iOS and Android. All let you load, create, and save Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, but they do have limitations. For example, they can't handle complex, macro-driven spreadsheets. Also a lot of PBX VOIP applications are available in respective app stores.

Some tablet makers, such as Lenovo on its think-pad tab, offer VPN and even remote Windows desktop options such as Citrix Receiver preinstalled.

Unfortunately, online apps like Google Docs and Docs.com are not the great solution for tablets that they could be--at least not beyond basic word processing. In practice, they're simply too keyboard- and mouse-oriented to be used efficiently on a tablet. On the other hand fully-featured applications implementing Virtual PBX services are available in the market easily.

Final Advice

Tablets can meet at least some of your business needs, but it's most likely going to embrace some compromise in the way you work. If you have software that requires Windows, then you need a Windows tablet--no way around it. If you don't have that constraint, then the iPad and Android tablets are more finger-friendly options. In case you are interested in Hosted PBX services then provider specific apps are easily available on both platforms.