iPad2- a possible threat to digital signboards?

We’ve been reading some interesting articles, including one released by Apple itself, addressing the iPad’s capacity to be used as a digital signage hardware. As shown below its screen is large enough to substitute a digital signboard and it doesn’t involve a highly complex set up process: just download the Player from Apple’s App store and buy the corresponding software licences as for any other digital signage device (it’s not clear yet how compatible the iPad is with most of the existing software available).

iPad’s  digital signage related extra capability  is its touchscreen option allowing for a more interactive customer experience to take place while most digital photo frames and digital signboards (read about the difference between them here) do exactly and only what their title says: shows photos and videos- period.

On the other hand the iPad is a quite expensive piece of hardware to be used for display purposes only. Its latest version- the 9.7” iPad2- costs around $499  (as shown on apple.com) or £308 while a 10.1”digital signboard is priced by IAdea at £229 .  Therefore I am not sure why one would buy iPads for this reason only as, besides its advanced touchscreen capability, it embeds no other extra-features (at least not made public yet).  Furthermore, the digital signboards seem to be turned into more complex devices; our partner, IAdea has launched its XDS- 104 equipped with a touch button and wifi connectivity. So again why pay more? It would make sense though to use the iPad if one already has it and would want to maximise its utility but other than that…it’s not a highly convincing option.

You are more than welcome to join the debate and let us know your thoughts on the matter below. So the iPad or the digital signboard?