I received very good comments on the Mac post before – thanks!
There is of course interesting to follow if there will be readers for smartphones analogue to the AutoCAD WS for iPhone. Will there be readers for the other platforms too? Windows Phone and Android….
Perhaps!
But now there is perhaps another item hotter for a CAD reader – the PAD! Note that there are not only iPads out there – almost every brand is trying to get a market share here. There will be a “pad invasion”! As we in Sweden call a toad a “padda”, the obvious nickname for those items are “paddor”, getting almost a Biblical Egytptian connotation to them. If we are now infested with pads we must wait for the mosquitoes next. Seems there will be a hardware war on the pads.
It all reminds me of the Spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”.
But who is really the Good here? We know that the former mayor of Carmel-by-the Sea Clint Eastwood was the Good in the Western, but how to choose between pads?
A crucial element would of course be, for us CAD nerds, if the Pad can handle our CAD viewing needs! And a crucial thing for BENTLEY would be to get Microstation working for nore than one platform too.
As the smartphone really is too messy to really see and a laptop to heavy to bring out into the field – a pad might have its place for us cadders.
But they are not yet strong enough to really work with in regards to MicroStation – but to read dgn files YES!
So my answer to the question in the title is not to choose one – but to choose ALL! Users should not be forced to choose hardware or platform based on software limitations!
As Bentley have splendid developers – Go for Gold!