Weighing up whether to use an ipad or an android tablet is very much a matter of personal choice. If you already have an android phone you may well veer towards an android tablet and iphone users may well prefer the ipad. One key question for some will be what driving instructor apps are available?
One important consideration at the time of writing is that there are very few driving instructor apps so far developed for android devices. Most developers seem to have focused on the ipad. This does seem a little short sighted since there are now far more android devices around than ipad and the growing popularity of android tablets may well see the ipad totally eclipsed.
Of course you do not have to use driving instructor apps to use a tablet for your driving school business. Having tried out both the ipad and several android tablets, I have found that for driving school use I do not want to use the driving school apps anyway. In a future article I will look at some of the apps available with some of their strengths and shortcomings.
If the use of apps specific to driving instructor use is important to you then you really have no choice but to go down the ipad route. There are promises of more apps on android but the developers seem to be waylaid by constantly updating their apps to be compatible with each ios update. So don’t expect much in the way of new driving instructor apps very soon.
Advantages of ipad for driving instructors
Prestige brand
Good for those who already have iphone
Range of driving school apps available
Disadvantages of ipad for driving instructors
Annoying system updates that seem to cause problems with some driving school apps
Slow to react on automatic brightness
Advantages of Android tablets for driving instructors
Cheaper
More flexible eg homepage widgets
Easily links into all Googles services
Android updates are smoother than ipad
The main uses for a tablet for driving schools are for appointments and record keeping and for use on lessons particularly for displaying pictures and lesson diagrams. It is probably not wise to go for a 7 tablet or the 8 ipad mini as these will not have enough viewing area for effective display of lesson diagrams. You will want the full size ipad or a 10.1 android tablet such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
My verdict.
Having trialled both the ipad and the android tablet systems I’m sticking with an android tablet for driving school use. My current tablet is the excellent Nexus 9
The thing I like best is that I can use a simple android widget to put on my home screen that displays my next few lessons at a glance something that the ipad for all its apparent sophistication, cant offer me. The native android calendar app is ideal for driving instructors to maintain their driving school diary and so for most instructors they will not need a dedicated driving school diary app.
Update
Having used an android device for driving school use for several years now I would never go back to using an ipad. While many driving school apps are designed just for ipads, there are enough generic apps that can be used to make android a better choice. While Apple’s products such as ipad and iphone may be perceived to be the market leader, the reality is that android devices as a whole are more popular than Apple’s with a greater market share.