Clearly, Apple is helping to usher in iPad-as-kiosk era. Apple recently launched iOS 6, which included "Guided Access" for the iPad. CIOs can use the Guided Access feature to restrict iPad to a single specific app. Guided Access also allows them to disable the Home button. With Guided Access, CIOs can easily turn the iPad into a retailer kiosk or a field worker tool with a specific function.

Strictly speaking, OTG's iPads aren't traditional kiosks with a single purpose. Its iPads merely have limited functionality along with custom-made apps, such as a restaurant menu with order-taking capability. Of course, users can't download apps or adjust settings.

But it's not as easy as it sounds or looks.

As a pioneer in this space, OTG needed to learn quickly about what people wanted from an iPad kiosk. "You've got to get it right the first time," Lee says. "You have a short window to impress and engage them. If they first see it and abandon it, abandonment is usually permanent at that point."

The pilot program called for putting iPads in airport waiting areas so that people might order food from the nearby restaurant, essentially turning a 50-seat restaurant into a 200-seat restaurant. Lee won't give exact figures on the return on investment, but he does say that waiting-area iPads generate revenue where there previously was none and offset the costs of the stand-mounted iPads.