Five iPad Stands for the Office

The iPad has already gone beyond kid-appeaser — a recent study reported that the most downloaded apps are for adults using the device at work.

So if you want to give the iPad a permanent place in your office, you might want something to prop it up with that doesn’t involve pencils and rubber bands.

While in some office environments, funky DIY stands (including a cat) might be conversation starters, in others, they just look, well, funky.

Here are our top five picks for iPad stands that deserve a place next to that sleek perpetual calendar and won’t look like some random piece of junk when your iPad is elsewhere.

1. Old Time Computers Marble finish stand. For that banker desk look, try this handcrafted stand in hardwood with a marble finish. It comes with a USB cable and audio jack,  available for $59.00 on Etsy. The same artisan has some terrific wooden stands in the same vein — including a combo iPad/iPhone dock charger —  as well as antique-looking external keyboards with a steampunk aesthetic.

2. Stabile iPad Stand. This sleek, silver stand won’t clutter up your desktop and the design recalls cousins the Apple iMac.  The name means “stable”  and this steel stand, which weighs in at nearly four pounds, isn’t going anywhere no matter how hard you pound on the touch screen. Stable, yes, but also flexible: the stand can  rotate to hold your iPad in four different positions. It retails for $69.99.

3. Joule. This pricey stand ($129) looks like a minimalist sculpture.  Made from solid aluminum, it will keep your iPad firmly in place. The California-made stand is CNC-machined like unibody iPad and MacBooks. Simple as it looks, the Joule also features a magnetically-attached tilt foot to change viewing angles, rubber pads for grip and is lined with velvet to avoid scratching the device.

4. Groovy Stand, “Writer.” Groovy Stands offers basic stands, made of hardwood available in black or brown stains as well as natural. These aren’t going to be much help if you need to move your iPad in different positions, but they are inexpensive ($12.95) and can be ordered with a wider groove if you want to leave your device in a case while using the stand.

5. Repurposed business card holder.
Office-worthy iPad stands don’t have to be expensive: in a pinch, pick up a small, unobtrusive black plastic business card holder to prop up your iPad with from Office Depot for $0.69.

Nicole Martinelli

Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco freelance writer who heads up Cult of Mac Magazine, our weekly publication available on iTunes. You can find her on Twitter and Google+. If you’re doing something new, cool and Apple-related, email her.