Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

AT&T to sell iPads direct to the enterprise

By | October 15, 2010, 5:55am PDT

Summary: AT&T said will sell Apple’s iPad direct to business customers in a move that could bolster enterprise adoption of the popular tablet.

AT&T said Friday that it will sell Apple’s iPad direct to business customers in a move that could bolster enterprise adoption of the popular tablet.

AT&T has said that it was seeing a strong corporate response to the iPad. Now it is ramping up the distribution.

In a statement, AT&T said it will sell all three flavors of the iPad and “offer attractive post-paid mobile broadband price plans.” AT&T will sell the iPad through its business account reps Oct. 28. That’s the same day that Verizon and AT&T will sell the iPad at its retail stores.

Simply put, Apple will have all of its distribution levers working.

Also: Verizon to sell Apple iPad starting October 28

The iPad will be lumped into AT&T’s corporate service subscription plans. For AT&T, the iPad offers another avenue to focus on machine-to-machine subscriptions.

The AT&T and Apple enterprise news comes as Research in Motion, Dell and others are trying to lock down the enterprise market more.

Related:

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Topics

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: AT&T to sell iPads direct to the enterprise
mwagner@... 18th Oct 2010
I am actually more interested in what the RIM tablet device will be able to do. If it can intereact with a BlackBerry in order to meet security needs, it will probably give the iPad a run for it's money. The key though is going to be price-point.

Either way, the enterprise can outfit its employees with a decent full-function laptop for about the same price as an entry-level iPad. It's not pretty or 'sexy' like the iPad but it is cost-effective and secure.

The inclusion of VPN in the iPad design does address some of the security concerns but Remote Desktop access using the 1024x768 screen of the iPad is pretty lame. And, the iPad appears to have no login security and it is not suitable for multi-user use.
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RE: AT&T to sell iPads direct to the enterprise
Loverock Davidson 15th Oct 2010
Lets see if any corporations buy into this.
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@Loverock Davidson They already have.

Any more words of wisdom denial boy?

How are those credentials coming? Going to post them soon?
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Here's a little wisdom...
trickytom3 17th Oct 2010
@cyberslammer

Enterprise-adoption doesn't mean a company that buys four iPads for its CEO and three VP's.

I want solid facts on how may large corporations have distributed the iPad to front-line staff. And, how many permit them to connect to their data-stores.

Some CEO sitting on a plane checking his email does not an enterprise-user make! You would know that, if you played at a higher-level.
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happy
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Shaking with LAUGHTER!!!!
trickytom3 17th Oct 2010
@cyberslammer

Seriously, I find it utterly hilarious that any tech-professional would even consider recommending the iPad for their enterprise.

First, laptops are a far better value from a business-perspective. Second, the iPad simply isn't secure; you can't fully encrypt it, and you can't remotely-administer it, which means that it's not an enterprise-grade mobile device...end of story.

No matter how much you might love your iPad, no matter how rabid your fanboism...the iPad wasn't designed for the enterprise.
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All good points ...
mwagner@... 18th Oct 2010
@trickytom3 ... especially when you consider that Apple knows about as much about marketing to the enterprise as Microsoft does about marketing to consumers.

Consumers buy Windows PCs from OEMs, not Microsoft, and they buy them largely based on price.

The iPad, however, falls into a price range that most middle-level employees can afford. Therefore, unless the enterprise plans to provide mobile devices for those telecommuting middle-level employees, the enterprise must be prepared to contend with the mobile devices their employees choose - regardless of its shortcomings.

Until/unless Apple's competitors introduce an "iPad killer" at a competitive price with a competitive ecosystem to support the device, the enterprise has no choice.
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No business sense...
trickytom3 17th Oct 2010
@cyberslammer

Cyberslammer needs to listen to someone who understands business. I can put my people in nice laptops (using VERY generous vendor discounts) for the same price as a base iPad.

Will they be excited by the laptops? Nope...Do I care? Nope. They can do REAL work with their laptops. They can run encrypted connections to our backend dabases, they can design adanced publications and run Photoshop, they can code and work on our company website. In short, I get a helluva lot more bang for my buck with laptops than the iPad.

For email and surfing they're great...but I want employees to have a lot more power when they're mobile.
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www. voguecatch.com/productlist.asp?baseid=41&bid=568
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but, but ...
banned from zdnet 15th Oct 2010
it's a toy, only for media consumption! and it doesn't have a keyboard and no pen. it will be called the iFlop!
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@banned from zdnet Yes, it's going to flop!! It will fail miserably!!! 4 million units sold a month is a failure!! Cue the Chapter 13 proceedings!
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sarcasm
banned from zdnet 15th Oct 2010
@cyberslammer
it's called sarcasm cybyboy. no offense.
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@banned I know...I added my own sarcasm happy
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Hey.. banned, stick to one user ID!
trickytom3 17th Oct 2010
@banned from zdnet
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i want...
OneTwoc21 15th Oct 2010
an iWaffle, with some iSyrup for iFlop

food is fun happy

yeah i know it has no point, just bored at work happy
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I know I wouldn't use it for work, UNLESS my boss says it's OK to play Angry Bird happy
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ipad and IT
banned from zdnet 16th Oct 2010
a great read about the prospects of corporate ipad use and the role of IT in it:
http://www.asymco.com/2010/10/14/ipad-it-gets-it

p.s. zdnet, how about hiring this guy?
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@banned from zdnet I know he wouldn't hire Loverock, that guy is about as innovative as a car with square wheels.
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You confuse innovation with hero-worship
trickytom3 17th Oct 2010
@cyberslammer

Other than form-factor, there's nothing "innovative" about the iPad. It doesn't do anything that a $349 laptop or network can't do...in fact, it does a lot less.
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That article sucks!
trickytom3 17th Oct 2010
@banned from zdnet

The article doesn't even mention security. (by the way, security is quite important to the enterprise).
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I am actually more interested in what the RIM tablet device will be able to do. If it can intereact with a BlackBerry in order to meet security needs, it will probably give the iPad a run for it's money. The key though is going to be price-point.

Either way, the enterprise can outfit its employees with a decent full-function laptop for about the same price as an entry-level iPad. It's not pretty or 'sexy' like the iPad but it is cost-effective and secure.

The inclusion of VPN in the iPad design does address some of the security concerns but Remote Desktop access using the 1024x768 screen of the iPad is pretty lame. And, the iPad appears to have no login security and it is not suitable for multi-user use.

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