The tablet is the Zelig of modern computing: There's no telling where it can turn up or how it will blend into some facet of our life and work.
And it's transforming business everywhere it appears.
Take the iPad: Originally conceived of as a media-consumption and entertainment device—an overgrown iPod—it's become an indispensable work tool, serving as everything from cash register to Rolodex.
Android tablets, too, are making inroads—especially in different form factors, like phone-tablet hybrids.
Square CFO Sarah Friar knows something about the chameleon-like nature of tablets. The payments company's credit-card reader and software turn these devices into modern day cash registers. She's taken to calling them: "general-compute devices."
That's exactly right, in that tablets start out as generalists, and are easily reconfigured from one purpose to the next. But it's in the specifics that things get really interesting.
Ducati sells motorcycles with a custom iPad app
Ducati, the motorcycle maker, has 1,000 dealers in 88 countries. It switched from a hodgepodge of systems to a single app, the Ducati Communication System, which does everything from show customized models to customers to training sales reps on new products.
Blue Bottle rings up lattes
An Oakland, Calif.-based coffee chain beloved by Internet-startup employees from San Francisco to Brooklyn, Blue Bottle was a natural adopter of iPads and Square's Register app. It started in three of the chain's 11 locations in February and it's rolling out to the rest over the next few months.
Like Blue Bottle's old point-of-sale systems, Square Register swipes credit cards and track sales. But it can do tricks the old ones can't—like let customers check in at a store and pay by saying their name, send digital gift certificates, and provide detailed sales analyses.
St. Louis Urgent Cares speeds up medicine
The most obvious use of iPads in medicine is to replace the old patient chart with electronic health records, which this chain of urgent-care facilities does. But the generalist nature of tablet shines through here: Doctors also use 3D anatomy apps to explain complicated medical procedures to patients.
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