Is the iPad useful for Business?
I’ve always been that guy in the office with the latest gadget, which makes me either annoying or interesting, depending on your point of view. So here’s one user’s perspective on the iPAD2:
CONTENT CONSUMPTION
Music, online radio, newspapers, reading email, video, text messages… it’s an amazing tool. I regularly download digital versions of the Vancouver Sun, Province and USA today. I watch video blogs, mostly on US politics, a hobby that’s both amusing and scary at times. ALL of that is FREE and online.
Think you can’t afford an iPAD? If you cancel your Vancouver Sun subscription… break even is about 2.5 years. Magazines? You just don’t buy ’em anymore… books… there are at least 30,000 FREE books you can download.
For BUSINESS … where do I start… I know… I also have an APPLE TV ($99), which is a really small black box. Hook it to big screen TV or monitor at a client site, and wirelessly stream Power Point (in the Apple world the “app” is Keynote) presentations from your iPAD. That’s impressive.
Enough of the good stuff, I could go on (and on). What’s more interesting (to write about) is the “bad”.
“APP ADDICTION”
I’ve spent around 200 bucks on “applications”… productivity, business apps of all kinds (you’re always be buying and trying for something just a little closer to what you really expected…), some games, etc. Here’s the problem… buy 5 “apps”, 1 will be great, 2 will be only fair, and 2 will SUCK. Read the reviews, and always try the “light” version first if one is available. Subscribe to iPAD Today, or similar podcasts, for reviews and recommendations. I have about 80 apps, and only use 10 of them on a regular basis.
CONTENT CREATION
If you create a lot of business documents, moderate to heavy typing and editing, you’ll need a big laptop or desktop to be productive. That’s true today, and likely will be for some time. So it’s not a replacement.
LAST WORDS
There are other tablets available… with APPLE, it’s not just “the tablet” you’re buying into, it’s the entire ecosystem… iTunes, the “app” store, the synching between devices… and now “iCloud”.
As apps mature into programs better tailored to specific business needs, tablet use in enterprise computing will increase dramatically, driving the demand for Wi-Fi inside your business. Get ready… and call us if you need help.
Some recent interesting reads about tablet computing:
Tablets, smartphones forcing upgrades of office Wi-Fi networks
Study: Smartphones and tablets to outsell computers in 2011