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Delta Employees 'Fought Hard for the iPad' as Microsoft Announces Surface 2 Deal
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As long as the pilot can do his job, I'll fly any carrier if it's going somewhere I want and the price is where I want it to be. Android, iPad, Windows 8....it's all the same when the pilot is using the program to read navigation charts.
Surface Clarification
FYI, the article states they'll be running Win8.1RT...That runs on the Surface(2)RT device using an ARM Chip, low powered and more importantly a crappy app platform. I did an informal check on the Windows 'store' and I estimate they have about 125 RT/ARM Compatible apps...could be more, as there was no way to filter and just show ARM/RT Compatible apps. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/search#p=1&prd=windows-8&q=ARM&s=Store
IMHO, having worked at MSFT for >14 years, MSFT may have given a developer money to pay for a proprietary application to be developed on the platform. And sure, there are the back room deals made, but that is not just MSFT...everyone in the enterprise space does it....sometimes it sucks for the employees, but it's reality. MSFT is EXTREMELY motivated to get the 8.1/surface/RT devices out there considering the huge write-off and bad press for the platform....
FYI, the article states they'll be running Win8.1RT...That runs on the Surface(2)RT device using an ARM Chip, low powered and more importantly a crappy app platform. I did an informal check on the Windows 'store' and I estimate they have about 125 RT/ARM Compatible apps...could be more, as there was no way to filter and just show ARM/RT Compatible apps. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/search#p=1&prd=windows-8&q=ARM&s=Store
IMHO, having worked at MSFT for >14 years, MSFT may have given a developer money to pay for a proprietary application to be developed on the platform. And sure, there are the back room deals made, but that is not just MSFT...everyone in the enterprise space does it....sometimes it sucks for the employees, but it's reality. MSFT is EXTREMELY motivated to get the 8.1/surface/RT devices out there considering the huge write-off and bad press for the platform....
Guessing pilots wanted the iPads because they are 'cool' but probably because they have personal iPhones/ipads and are very comfortable with them. Learning a new tablet (as different as the Surface is) can be something that is slightly daunting.
and for sure Delta was looking at the financials and MS gave them a great deal whereas Apple most likely wouldn't give them the numbers they wanted to see.
and for sure Delta was looking at the financials and MS gave them a great deal whereas Apple most likely wouldn't give them the numbers they wanted to see.
I can understand why Delta would make this choice. It's not like the airline industry cares all that much about reliability. When has inflight crashes ever been an issue for an airline?
Surface 2 and iPad? Same concept. Surface Pro 2 and iPad? Way unfair. Get over it.
The best part is that this is going to be a 2-year rollout. Does that mean that pilots will be getting tablets that are up to 2 years out of date?
A 2-year old iPad is still pretty usable; a 1-year old RT tablet is obsolete now and was never really useful to begin with.
Yeah, not long after I got my current job I needed a Mac so the IT guy just goes and spends $3k on a Mac Pro. I was like "What in the hell is this? I asked for an iMac!" and he said "Oh, but the Mac Pro is more expensive so it's better, right?"
It didn't even have a monitor. When they took the crappy old Dell they took the crappy old monitor with it. I had a Mac Pro sitting in my office with nothing else. I think he was trying to be a dick. He has made fun of Apple products in the past for being so expensive and proprietary. Whatever dude! Have fun with your 32GB Surface that only has 16GB of storage available. This same IT guy is the only person I've ever seen in real life using a Surface tablet.
Anyway, ended up getting it exchanged for a 27" iMac that had much better specs for $500 less. I basically maxed out everything except the video card. My boss saw how much my productivity improved after getting an iMac that she is considering getting them for the rest of the office now. I have no idea how one of my coworkers is getting along on this old Dell with 2GB of ram trying to multitask between Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator with Outlook and a bunch of other crap running. Somehow she just deals with it but she is the most stressed out and busy person ever. Her stress is so high that just being around her makes me stressed out, and I'm a fairly easy-going guy. Get her a damn Mac already! The only reason anyone on my team has PCs is because of an outdated idea that you need PCs to do work, so IT buys them. Since we're the creative marketing and website/app design team for the college, we are in an especially good position to switch. But what do I know?
It's Apple's wrongdoing of secrecy and other issues that causes this. Companies want to know a platform will continue to be supported.
There's a lot still running Windows XP with P4 chips. How often do you see companies running OS X 10.0 still?
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IT people for the most part are stuck in their ways and don't like to learn. That's why a lot are still running legacy ****.
One pilot was quoted - on AppleInsider?
Oh sure. Credible story.
This isn't news and happens all the time. Sure it's about money - and maybe it's about an IT department that is already entrenched in MS. But it could also have a lot to do with legacy systems that would run best on MS vs switching iOS.
So easy to point fingers and a decision when no one here has the full story.
Oh sure. Credible story.
This isn't news and happens all the time. Sure it's about money - and maybe it's about an IT department that is already entrenched in MS. But it could also have a lot to do with legacy systems that would run best on MS vs switching iOS.
So easy to point fingers and a decision when no one here has the full story.
As a pilot my company issued a samsung tablet to us for our publications that we are required to carry on all flights. But with a password to use the same publication app on our iPads. Which most of us use instead of the galaxy tab. We spoke with the IT people and it's the same case of them not wanting to work with 2 separate systems even tho the iPad is much better suited for us. I am sure that they cut a deal too good to be true with Delta and the pilots will have to figure out a way to carry 2 pads with them one for the company/FAA show & the other one (iPad) to actually use. Another case of you get what you pay for.
It's not irrational. IT guys take care of many systems, not just yours. In a big company with potentially thousands of machines, they want everything to be consistent. They learn one set of commands, one set of settings. They follow scripts. It's very by-the-book. That's good for their training as well as for company security (if they have validated one particular configuration as "known good and safe", they can roll it across the whole company and not worry about it). They can also manage spare parts and repairs better if everyone is using the same sets of hardware. This also works in their favour for software licensing agreements.
They also often deploy custom-written apps or scripts for various tasks relating to setting up, connecting to your network, rolling out patches or software upgrades, etc.
You want to bring in your Mac -- in a small company with a flexible IT staff, maybe that's no problem. But it's easy to understand why IT would be hesitant. They don't know how your Mac will behave on their carefully configured network. They don't have spare parts for it. They don't have software licenses for it. They can't verify or guarantee its security on the network. (Yes, yes, we say it's MORE secure than Windows, but can you prove that? Are they willing to sign off on it because you say so?) They won't know how to fix it if you have problems. That moves the liability on YOU. Which management doesn't want to risk. Plus, it sets a precedent -- if you can have a Mac, why can't Suzy? Except Suzy doesn't know anything about how to connect it to the company intranet, so she keeps calling IT, and IT can't help her, so now they have to learn to set up another system, and...
It's not that they're "lazy" and "don't want to learn". Learning more costs the company more. More documents, more training, more scripting, more hardware to test deployments, more configurations to manage, more licenses to buy (and less volume per license, so potentially higher cost). In a company that cares about things like ISO 900x or CMMI or whatever, that also means more certifications, more compliance management, more paperwork.
Again, in a small company, maybe the IT staff is happy to say "Sure, if you're willing to configure it, support it, and fix it yourself and pay for your own software licenses, go for it". But in a large company, where corporate security, network compliance, etc. are important -- it isn't irrational.
Edit: deleted an incorrect statement.
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You guys won't fly an airline just because they carry a tablet you don't like?
Really makes you wonder how some people function, doesn't it?
The surface is a touch screen laptop that is missing a keyboard. Their App Store is a joke.