Dell CFO: Tablets will gain ground in enterprises

01.12.2010
Tablets will slowly gain acceptance in the enterprise, and in the long term could possibly could replace laptops as a primary computing device, a Dell executive said this week.

"I think the tablet dynamic will have an impact within the enterprise," said Brian Gladden, chief financial officer at Dell, during the Credit Suisse 2010 Technology Conference on Tuesday in Phoenix.

Tablets are mostly incremental devices to do enterprise work, and users still have primary devices such as laptops, Gladden said. Though it may be too early to measure the full enterprise impact, in time, tablets could be used on a wider basis to perform corporate functions, Gladden said.

"Is there a point in time where it become cannibalistic in the enterprise? Probably," Gladden said.

Dell this year reentered the handheld market with the introduction of a mobile Internet device called the Streak, which has a 5-inch screen and runs Google's Android OS. The device is mostly targeted at consumers, but the company is pitching it to commercial customers like hospitals with specialized software that provides secure access to remote documents.

The Streak has been successful, and Dell will come out with a range of new tablet products for enterprise customers, Gladden said. Dell is predominantly in the enterprise business, and wants to focus its energies on corporate customers.