iPad 2: Impact on enterprise, engineering and CAD

Last week at Apple’s iPad 2 launch event Steve Jobs said several amazing things about both the iPad in general and the new version in particular. One of the more stunning things he said–besides the fact that Apple has now shipped 15 million iPads in just nine months–was that Apple had shipped more iPads in just nine months than all Tablet PCs (Windows and Linux variety) ever sold.

Think about that. Microsoft introduced the world to the Microsoft Windows Tablet PC back in 2001. In addition to Windows-based devices there have been several Linux varients, but for all these options and in so many years (9 to be exact) Apple outsold them all combined in just nine months!

That’s quite an accomplishment and shows you the tremendous, game-changer momentum Apple has generated with the first iPad.

Goodness Comes in Nines

The number nine seems to be meaningful to Apple and its iPad  product line. Not only has Apple outsold all others combined in nine months compared to their roughly nine years but the new iPad 2–very importantly for the engineering and CAD markets–is now nine times faster in graphics performance!

And the main CPU performance is twice as fast. All an all this is very important and good news for Apple’s leadership in this space. And it is good news for software developers who take advantage of this technical leadership, says Charles Edge, book author and director of technology for 318, Inc., an IT consulting and development firm specializing in integrating Apple in the enterprise.

“The added performance with the new processors and graphics is going to bring a lot of new possibilities,” said Edge. “That’s the main reason why Apple built the Garage Band and iMovie applications…to showcase how far you can push the envelope.”

But the nine times graphics performance is really going to benefit engineering and CAD software developers serving the enterprise space. “If a company like Autodesk releases tools–which they have–then they are going to de facto have portability to the desktop applications and a lot of adoption because of that,” said Edge.

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