Strong US business interest in iPad: AT&T

US companies are showing a great deal of interest in the iPad and some are considering replacing their employees' laptops with Apple's tablet computer, telecom giant AT&T said Thursday.

AT&T chief financial officer Richard Lindner said that US businesses had initially been reluctant to adopt the iPhone when it debuted three years ago but have shown no such hesitation with the iPad.

AT&T is the exclusive 3G carrier for the devices in the United States.

"When we first introduced the iPhone, businesses and CIOs (chief information officers) of our business customers were reluctant," Lindner said in a conference call with analysts.

"They kind of pushed back on bringing the iPhone into their infrastructure," he said. "Over time, that has changed dramatically."

Lindner said US companies have readily embraced the iPad, which hit stores in April.

"One thing that's been encouraging and a bit surprising is the level of interest from business customers," he said. "Right from the beginning with the iPad we've had a number of our business customers express interest.

"A number of them have trials going on," Lindner said. "They see a lot of opportunities to use the iPad within their business.

"Businesses see the opportunity in many cases to use the iPad potentially as laptops for many of their people that travel," he added.

Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook said during Apple's earnings call on Tuesday that more than 80 percent of the Fortune 100 companies were "deploying or piloting" the iPhone and over 60 percent of the Fortune 500.

Cook said that 50 percent of the Fortune 100 companies were deploying or testing the iPad.

Apple said Tuesday that it had sold 3.27 million iPads in the third quarter of its fiscal year.

(c) 2010 AFP