Dell Says Apple iPad Will Fail In Enterprise - Huffington Post

Andy Lark, Dell's global head of marketing for large enterprises and public organizations, sat down with CIO Australia and made some predictions about the iPad.

Apple's successful tablet will ultimately fail in the business market, Lark said, because of its hefty price tag and because of Apple's "proprietary" ecosystem.

"Apple is great if you've got a lot of money and live on an island. It's not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex," said Lark, according to CIO.

He then quoted some figures that don't quite add up. "An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse and a case [means] you'll be at $1500 or $1600."

Macgasm breaks down the cost of an iPad with peripherals, in U.S. dollars: $499 for an iPad, $69 for an Apple-approved wireless keyboard attachment, $29 for an iPad dock, $69 for a Smart Cover. The grand total comes to $666, far short of Lark's estimate. If you swapped the $499 base model for a 64GB iPad 2 with Wi-Fi and 3G, the total is still shy of $1,000.

Perhaps he was talking in Australian dollars? "Even the top-end, 64GB iPad 2 WiFi [+] 3G (at $AU949) paired with Apple's Bluetooth keyboard and a leather Smart Cover only comes to less than $1,130," writes SlashGear.

Nevertheless, Lark continued to speak confidently about Dell's "multi-OS" strategy for winning the enterprise market with tablets built on the Android and Windows Phone 7 platforms.