Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines recently announced that they will be providing an iPad in every stateroom beginning in 2012. This initiative represents an estimated purchase of more than 10,000 iPads and will potentially expose hundreds of thousands of users to the device in the first full year of operation alone.

Announcements like this seem to be commonplace these days. 

Not surprisingly, at Mobiquity, we see this general interest in tablets mirrored by requests from our clients. In fact, the majority of our projects include a tablet component. 

In some cases, this might manifest itself as a stand-alone app, but more often than not, the tablet is only a portion of the solution designed and delivered in the context of a larger mobile strategy initiative.

One such client project features iPad "smart kiosks" as the centerpiece of an overall mobile/wireless solution for a large fast-casual restaurant chain. It's a transformative project that touches virtually every piece of their business.

The project involves a bank of iPads mounted in restaurants that allow guests to order and pay for meals without having to wait in line for a cashier. Customers can use the kiosks in one of two ways:

1. A guest can build an order anonymously and then pay by swiping her credit card through the mag-stripe reader mounted with the iPad.
    
2. A guest can begin by swiping her loyalty card to identify herself, then assemble her order from a list of her saved favorites, and tap the screen to pay with a credit card previously linked to her account.

In the latter case, favorites, order history and other customer info is synced back to the data center in real-time, which allows guests to access their data wherever, whenever and however they like: using native apps on their iPhone, iPad and Android devices, or via the mobile or desktop Web apps.

Endless possibilities

This solution is still in the pilot stage, but I can tell you that the experience is going to be extremely compelling. I'm looking forward to the full rollout both as a contributor to the project and as a regular customer anxious to enjoy a more modern ordering experience.

Our fast-casual client is not alone in the drive to release a tablet-based kiosk. We have other clients across a variety of verticals that are exploring similar possibilities. Will tablet kiosks eventually replace traditional desktop-based kiosks? It's too soon to say, but tablets do have a long list of advantages over their legacy counterparts.  Tablets are cheaper, they’re wireless by default, and have built-in battery backup.

Tablets can be installed almost anywhere, and the applications are more responsive. Plus tablets support gestures and multi-touch interactions that enable deeper engagement with content, and so much more.

As prices drop and hardware options proliferate, I expect we'll find ourselves surrounded by touch-based computing interfaces of all shapes and sizes in the relatively near term.