12.9 IPP for Business?

[Gman021]

Hey Guys,

On the fence about what piece of technology is best to buy as a student/business owner (more like making a few dollars off my hobby).

I do a lot of emailing, excel sheets to track orders, and notepad work. I have to track a large amount of serial numbers, names, phone numbers, etc.

Just wondering if the IPP is the best device, or if I should go for an SP4 or Macbook Pro. I prefer a regular keyboard and mouse, but I know I would certainly get the iPencil.

 

[hovscorpion12]

It depends on what type of product you've been using up until now (PC or Mac). Since you use excel, Tracking Serial numbers, Telephone numbers either one will do the job. The iPad Pro 12.9" can get the job done on excel while the surface pro 4 is full Windows 10 on a tablet. I do have both the Surface pro 4 and iPad Pro 12.9' only because my company used windows and i regularly take work home.

 

[Osty]

Hey Guys,

On the fence about what piece of technology is best to buy as a student/business owner (more like making a few dollars off my hobby).

I do a lot of emailing, excel sheets to track orders, and notepad work. I have to track a large amount of serial numbers, names, phone numbers, etc.

Just wondering if the IPP is the best device, or if I should go for an SP4 or Macbook Pro. I prefer a regular keyboard and mouse, but I know I would certainly get the iPencil.

How you spend your money is your business but since you asked for advice...

Success to running a business is all about cash flow. Meanwhile, for Students (at least when I was in Uni) it's usually a question of "do I eat this week or pay fees/books/rent".

So with that said:

1. I'd say save your money and make do with what you have.
2. Stop paying licence/subscription fees to Microsoft and use Linux with LibreOffice and while you are at it, stop abusing spreadsheets with tasks better suited to databases.
3. If you must have a tablet, consider buying one running Android as they can run Excel and support keyboards AND mice.
4. Ignore all advice you find on Macrumors, including mine.

 

[kis]

I initiated a thread on IPP for schools / the classroom. After having used my 12.9" IPP for a few days in the classroom, I'd say it's excellent for that (showing students stuff, doing some light word processing etc.). For me, it's great - but then I do the brunt of my work on a 15" rMBP.

But for a business user, I'd say: don't do it, unless you're a photographer and need to show clients your work etc. There are some limitations that are hard to ignore:

- can't have two spreadsheets (or any other document) open at the same time.
- the lack of a touchpad is a major issue when using remote desktop
- the lack of a proper file system makes everything that has to do with individual files more complicated than on a proper desktop OS. Plus you'll be almost entirely dependent on cloud file storage to get your files to the apps on the IPP, unless you're willing to transfer stuff over using iTunes. The words "business" and "iTunes" most certainly don't go well together.

I also bought a Surface Pro 4 last week (replaced my underpowered Macbook with it) and have to say that this is definitely more like it in terms of productivity. It's insanely light, very fast, has a great keyboard (on the IPP you have the choice between the Apple Keyboard, which is ok to type but not fantastic, and the Logitech one which is very good, but easily doubles the weight of your IPP) and the trackpad is also pretty usable. Definitely not as good as that on any Mac laptop, but it get's the job done and it's basically just a backup for the fantastic touchscreen anyway. In terms of styluses (styli): they're both awesome and the one on the SP4 comes with it free, while you'll be shedding another 100$ for the Apple version. They're both equally nice to use and I don't see that many differences for my normal work (which is markup in Word and of PDF files). If you're a graphics artist, the Apple one is probably better.

So my advice to you: if portability isn't an issue, I'd go with a 13" Macbook Pro any day. But if you need an ultra-light device that doubles as a tablet computer and that comes with a stylus for document markup, I'd go with the SP4 for business use. For other uses, the IPP might be better.

 

[scaredpoet]

While using an iPad exclusively is not something I'd recommend for this sort of thing, I think some of these statements need to be qualified a bit:

- can't have two spreadsheets (or any other document) open at the same time.

Not entirely true. It is true (and annoying) that you can't have two excel instances open at once. But, you CAN split screen and have, say a Word doc and an Excel spreadsheet open. Or, Numbers and Excel Open at the same time if you really need two spreadsheets. Here's an example using my iPad Pro 9.7".

- the lack of a touchpad is a major issue when using remote desktop

Depends on the app used. I use RemoterVNC which can use a portion of the touchscreen to simulate a touchpad if you want it to, or turn it off if it happens to be in the way.

- the lack of a proper file system makes everything that has to do with individual files more complicated than on a proper desktop OS. Plus you'll be almost entirely dependent on cloud file storage to get your files to the apps on the IPP, unless you're willing to transfer stuff over using iTunes. The words "business" and "iTunes" most certainly don't go well together.

Perhaps, but "business" and "cloud" do go together quite often. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that using an iPad for just about anything that involved creativity will require some use of the cloud. Even having a filesystem on-board will not allow a user to avoid this... if you're planning on sharing anything you create on an iPad, even with yourself on another device, then you'll have to touch the cloud in some way.

If you have any reservations about using the cloud, for ANY reason, valid or not, then a tablet just isn't for you.

 

[kis]

Perhaps, but "business" and "cloud" do go together quite often. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that using an iPad for just about anything that involved creativity will require some use of the cloud. Even having a filesystem on-board will not allow a user to avoid this... if you're planning on sharing anything you create on an iPad, even with yourself on another device, then you'll have to touch the cloud in some way.

.

I'm absolutely not saying cloud computing is bad - it's just a cumbersome way to get to your files on an iPad, mainly because the cloud apps aren't always the most intuitive ones to use. Copying files etc. can be a pain in the butt. And in the case of OneDrive just getting to your files can take way too much time if you have an elaborate folder structure etc. as it doesn't offer a shortcut system. Search works ok but isn't always very fast, either. As it is now, the iPad is not made for more elaborate file operations, so stuff like that can get frustrating very quickly - not something you'll want if your business depends on it.

 

[jamesrick80]

Get a fast thin and light laptop.....just too many frustrations that may arise with the iPad pro for business use.......

 

[rowspaxe]

Just wondering if the IPP is the best device, or if I should go for an SP4 or Macbook Pro. I prefer a regular keyboard and mouse, but I know I would certainly get the iPencil.

How can you possibly not seen the scores of threads on this issue?