Is the iPad a Business Status Symbol?

This post on TechCrunch caught my attention initially because of the obvious factor.

Big Surprise! The iPad Trumps Android Tablets At The Office

Further down, there’s an interesting passage:

At the same time, my gut tells me this iPad craze has a lot to do with status. Back before the iPhone, business men carried around BlackBerries and whether they liked it or not, it was a status symbol. It meant: I am so important that my company bought me this special messaging phone with super secure email. Now, those same BlackBerries are falling into the hands of assistants, while the big guys upstairs carry around iPhones, and to some degree, Android handsets.

The same is happening with tablets. This time, Apple was the first out of the gate to offer a sexy, powerful tablet. It took the world by storm. Android tablets are trying to catch up, and with the number of OEMs pushing out Android tablets, it shouldn’t take that long either. In the meantime, Apple’s iPad is the “it” tablet, and it oozes status whether in an office or a Starbucks.

This mirrors what I’ve seen and heard reported, i.e. executives carry them to meetings, sales want to demo with them. The iPad is the “it” device for business right now, and the comparison with BlackBerry in its heyday is actually quite accurate.

Of course, lots of people are carrying iPads they bought themselves to work, but from my experience in corporate IT, I have to believe the iPad has become the device of choice for a lot of upper-level executives, especially those who travel all the time. Back in the day, those executives used to get the ultra-slim notebooks.

What’s funny is the parallel (or lack thereof) with the iPhone. Remember the news reports mocking all the nerds standing in line for Apple’s new phone?

I remember seeing a video mocking the iPhone’s cool factor shortly after it was released. The gist was basically that the iPhone made the owner look less cool and more like a geek, and very few people wanted to see the device in action, much to the owner’s chagrin.

Wow, have the times changed since then.

Have you seen this at your company? Do you think the iPad (or tablets in general) are a status symbol?