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So Why Bother with an iPad?
The iPad ships April 3, and I have my name on one. I’ll be looking out the front window for the UPS person to come walking up to my door with a big smile on his face. He knows me well, and those folks ALWAYS know when there is a big product release from Apple.
But what will using the iPad reveal to us about its potential?
Will we be disappointed as the tidal wave of yammering critics blog away at what the iPad doesn’t do? I’m curious to find what gets revealed from people in business looking for competitive edges. We’ve been down this road before with Apple products, so I’m staying with an open, curious mind. We’ll see soon enough. Will the 4.0 release of the OS finally offer the much-requested multi-tasking? I predict that this summer. Will there be competitors? Of course. It’s no mystery that Apple is looking over their shoulder at Google, and Microsoft will be a player at some point. You may want to keep your eye on the new JooJoo Tablet that is expected to ship March 29th. Still, the issue is: How do you leverage these devices to grow your business or create income?
I’m kicking off a series of articles on where the iPad (or tablet computing in general) will be adopted for use in business. I’m curious about what smart-phone developers think because they are so close to the development process; they fully grasp what is possible but is not visible yet to the rest of us. They build applications for businesses and therefore see what’s working and what’s not. A recent post from the InstaPaper developer illustrates my point around design trade-offs.
I have asked my Techendeavour.com contacts who helped me develop the BMC Today iPhone app for BMC Software to chime in with their thoughts. Their experience in developing mobile apps cuts across a wide range of smart-phone vendors, and they have the added capability of employing a number of very bright developers who understand the IT backend issues. To more fully grasp the breadth of business applications they have already handled, see a rather impressive list of case studies here.
Let’s see what they think:
“iPad for sure is a consumer device and is expected to have a minimal impact on the enterprise in the short run. However, given the fact that higher up in the enterprise the executives prefer to have a device which allows them to switch between their personal interests and work at any time, it will surely find its way in the enterprise. At first, we might observe the employees buying them on their own, with their own money, and then slowly linking them up with the backend. In this sense, Apple has also done a good job by ensuring that the existing applications which are developed for iPhone can be easily supported on the iPad as well.” − Rahul Aggarwal, Co-founder, Endeavour Software Technologies
I’ve seen that happen with the iTouch, for example. I produce audio and video podcasts each month for the Enterprise IT space. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of executives who sent me notes or spoke with me on the phone, saying they listen to the shows on their iTouch. But as we all know, the iTouch has very limited screen size. More importantly, if you’ve ever worked with an enterprise, you know that the only way new projects become successful is if upper management is visibly supporting the effort. So maybe we should gift our favorite executives with iPads. Well … that’s another topic.
The following quote from Avinash Misra speaks to the issue of the small screen’s constraining the visual narrative (think user experience) on an iPhone/iTouch device versus iPad.
“iPad has a rather Dickensian position: It changes nothing and it changes everything. For content producers, everything. It promises to strengthen the fractured visual narrative – so weakened by the constraints of limited form factors – and thus the narrative will enjoy a renaissance of sorts in that now it can be integrated. For application developers, nothing. The challenges of monetization, development, promotion are exactly the same. Yet the most interesting opportunity is for the enterprise − a new ‘segway-like’ opportunity.” − Avinash Misra, CEO, Endeavour
And what discussion of the iPad would be complete without a prediction around traditional print and media companies’ having a new opportunity to generate revenue?
“The iPad evolution can take several forms. I expect it to become the publishing platform for digital content, and I expect media companies to make the fast leap onto getting paid subscriptions. I also think Apple is going after the Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook to ensure we get the next generation of ebook readers to offer paid subscription for books, newspapers. I expect it to be a consumer device before it becomes an enterprise device. I also think you will see accessories built that will help the iPad connect to the home, whether to an entertainment system, home pictures or video. Adoption in the enterprise will come as a second wave, when more applications that use the iPad instead of a netbook are seen.” − Jayaraman Raghuraman, Vice President, Endeavour
There is already a lot of conversation and predictions about media companies either hoping or dismissing that iPad will be the next revolution for them. Let’s keep our eye on the more nuanced uses of the iPad and tablets and see where businesses find opportunities that give them that competitive edge. This is what you want to see revealed in the next few months. What an exciting trend to be watching.
This post from www.TomParish.com
So Why Bother with an iPad?