For the last month or so, Apple's iPad has been the talk of the town. But let's face it: The device has no place in enterprise environments. Or does it?

Earlier this month, TechRepublic's Jason Hiner served up five business scenarios for the iPad and other tablets--and we agree with all of them. Heck, Hiner didn't even delve into the various vertical markets where tablets could really take off, such as healthcare and media.

A few days later, Silicon.com convened a "CIO Jury" of a dozen CIOs, IT directors, and their equivalents, and asked if the iPad has a future as a business device. The result: 10 said yes, two said no. Here's an excerpt:

Madhushan Gokool, IT manager at Storm Model Management, said: "As with the iPhone, when it first came out, businesses were very 'scared' of it, and thought there was no future benefits for the business. The iPhone has not been out for a long period, and it has already revolutionised some businesses. The same will happen with the iPad."

While we don't agree with that particular opinion (businesses weren't "scared" of the iPhone, they merely found it lacking in key areas--like Exchange support), we definitely think this could be the year that tablets hit the bigtime.

That said, from a cost and productivity standpoint, we think the vast majority of organizations will be better off with a Windows-powered solution, as that will make for much simpler migration of apps and data. And let's not forget application compatibility, deployment options, and other benefits of staying in the Windows ecosystem.

What do you think about tablets, both present and future? Can you envision deploying, say, a thousand slates in place of netbooks or notebooks? Share your thoughts in the comments.