Rugged tablets vs commercial tablets: Commercial tablets are well suited for a specific usage in a risk-free environment: they are not hardened which raises the risks of breakdown and failure related to environmental conditions. As a reminder the main reasons for failure in a professional environment are:
- Vibrations
- External temperature
- Thermal shock (hot-cold in summer, cold-hot in winter)
Even some of the biggest manufacturers such as Dell admit this fact to be true: commercial tablets or non-rugged professional tablets fail more. This is due to the financial constraints necessary to propose cheap products, but it has a direct impact on design, components and materials. Components choice is based on cost reduction, not on failure reduction and leads to increasing downtimes.
Professional also need a range of accessories for their everyday business: docking stations, battery chargers, barcode readers allow a far better and specific experience in a business environment. Mainstream products are not specifically designed for this kind of use.
Furthermore, product lifespan is very short and there is little or no business continuity commitment on components or even models. This has a strong impact on system integration (different images in a Windows environment, different Android versions, etc.).
For a professional use, a commercial or non-rugged tablet represents higher direct and indirect costs. Rugged tablets will allow to control and regulate your investment.