iPad Sightings on the Rise Everywhere

Before heading to LaGuardia airport, you’ll probably check flight status and train schedules on your iPad. On the train, you might read an iPad magazine. Beyond the security checkpoint, you’ll surely pass rows of tables with iPads that make the airport look like an Apple Store. During the flight, you may even watch a movie on your iPad, that is, if you had the foresight to download it the night before.

It’s an iPad cultural invasion!

While iPads may be over-hyped in the enterprise, they’re turning up just about everywhere else. Apple’s amazing tablet can be found in all sorts of public settings. People use iPads to consume multimedia content and create content despite what critics say. It’s not shocking anymore to be in a coffee shop surrounded by patrons with noses buried in iPads.

The number of iPad sightings will skyrocket as the iPad enters the era of the kiosk and single-use purpose. Look closely enough, and you’ll see signs of this happening already. Fancy restaurants have replaced paper menus with iPads. Small retailers use iPads to ring up orders. Dunkin’ Donuts has launched an iOS and Android payment apps, writes CIO.com’s Al Sacco.

At airports like LaGuardia, iPads are showing up in waves.

In May this year, airport food and beverage company OTG rolled out more than 300 iPads in LaGuardia airport. Passengers can spend time waiting for flights seated in front of an iPad. They can check Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Gmail. They can read MSN, The New York Times and Bloomberg. They can stay informed about their flight. And, of course, they can order food and beverages.

Slideshow: 15 Ways iPad Goes to Work

Passengers can do all of this for free. Already, OTG has seen a 15 to 20 percent revenue boost, CEO Rick Blatstein told Forbes. OTG plans to roll out 7,000 iPads in four North American airports.

The iPad has landed!