Procurement Intelligence Unit

Research in Motion, the manufacturer of the Blackberry, has launched its own tablet computer, the Playbook, to rival Apple's iPad. The proliferation of executive communication devices has muddied the waters for purchasing functions, but also provides an additional tool to facilitate work during travel.

After match talk of rival launches to the iPad, few serious tablet contenders entered the market. Consequently, Apple has enjoyed having the market to itself since its launch in January 2010. The misleadingly named Playbook is work-focused, with two cameras to enable video conferencing and deploys its recently acquired QNX operating system. Blackberry's parallel communications network also affords the Playbook a significant security advantage for businesses. However, this move has only helped to pressurise a marketplace, the boundaries of which increasingly warp and shift, under nearly intolerable strain.

The pressure to take a winning product to market was shown in the rapid production of the iPhone 4. The Wall Street Journal reported that the new product was sent to market with less testing time than is normal. Reportedly, Apple CEO Steve Jobs overruled internal concerns over problems with the antenna. Engineers believed that direct contact with the human hand changed the reception of the antenna and, eschewing calls to recall, Apple originally advised consumers to buy a protective case or change the way in which they held the device.

As an early fanatical follower of the book of Jobs, the CEO of the PIU proudly flourishes his iPad at all opportunities – my own experience of the tablet has been a combination of peeking over the shoulders of fellow commuters flicking through the daily news and fruit ninja.

With smartphones using Android-based alternatives to the iPhone, Apple is already losing ground to rivals in the mobile telephony market. Although Nokia's Symbian operating system is still the leading provider (with 38% of the global market share), Google-based phones are rising rapidly. Q2 2010 saw shipments of Android supported systems grow by 886%. HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson are currently backing Google's operating system. Many analysts believe that a repeat of Apple's ceding of market share to Microsoft in the 1990s may repeat as Android dominates the market.

As the telephone and portable computer market converge, the prospect of equipping an increasingly mobile workforce with an office that can be transported anywhere. In this respect, the battery life of the machines becomes central, with industry experts believing that iPad's 10-hour lifespan may top Blackberry's power hungry tablet. Interestingly, although Microsoft has transported Windows 7 into a phone operating system, it has had limited acceptance in this field.

As businesses moves towards cloud applications and towards portable hardware, the dominance of Microsoft, and propriety software in general, may melt away. The changing work patterns of employees may yield a fundamentally altered technology sector.