iOS 6 Breaks My iPad

Yesterday, my iPad broke. 

Well, actually, some critical work apps hung up waiting to download updates, but what’s the difference? Apple’s miracle tablet was useless for work (which is why I’m writing this post on an old ThinkPad).

I spent a couple of hours trying to troubleshoot this problem and found an Apple support thread entitled “trouble downloading apps after iOS 6 update.” I wasn’t alone.

All sorts of workarounds appeared on the thread, from pushing the time ahead a couple of years to logging in and out of your Apple account to resetting the network settings and rebooting. I tried them all. I tried combinations. I tried to think happy thoughts. And I hoped it would just start working again.

Millions of iPads and many more iPhones have become critical work tools that fall under newly crafted policies called BYOD, or bring-your-own-device. For the most part, these policies require the employee to take care of their devices.

“It’s your expense to buy them, as well as the 3G-4G [data plan], and to maintain them,” says Ingram Micro CIO Mario Leone, describing his BYOD iPad policy.

So what happens when a bunch of iPads suddenly stop working?

Surely, my iPad problems stem from the iOS 6 update. Yes, I was one of the giant herd updating to iOS 6 in the first 24 hours of its availability. In that time period, iOS 6 landed on more than 15 percent of Apple devices, according to data analytics firm, Chitika.

Many CIOs point to security as being the biggest threat to BYOD, while others see mobile security as a bugaboo for consumer devices in the enterprise. Nay, the biggest threat comes from Apple itself.

Now I’m just a writer with a ThinkPad backup plan. My downed iPad is headshaking, not backbreaking. But it doesn’t take a fortune teller to see the looming business consequences of iPads and iPhones suddenly unusable overnight.

As for me, I’m planning to call the nearest Apple store for an appointment at the Genius bar to get my iPad fixed. I’ll probably make that call next week. The store will be a madhouse today because it’s the first day of iPhone 5 availability.

Can your business people be without a critical work tool for a week?