As with all major Fortune 500 companies that have large field workforces, the on-going debate is always having a fully rugged solution deployed over a non-rugged device. Organizations that have mission critical applications understand the true total cost of ownership along with the reliability and
up-time of these devices. There is only one mobile computing solution with a 'bumber to bumper' 5 year warranty. This fully rugged device vs a commercial grade pc with only a 12 month warrranty along with the philosophy of buy 'em cheap and stack 'em deep is extremely flawed. Especially from an IT support and maintenance level not to mention having field personnel that routinely experience down-time with commercial grade laptops. Talk about making it very hard for companies to justify operational efficiency without the correct mobile devices deployed or even provided. Now add the fact that you're world operates in an explosion hazard area where a certified device is mandatory. ATEX, NEC and IECEx devices are far and few between, be sure your vendor/supplier has all the world certifications. Thus allowing an employee to operate globally, whether he's offshore in Louisiana one day or Nigeria the next.