The first time I saw Apple’s iPad in use by a small company — which happened to be a chocolatier at my local farmer’s market, which had one set up as an interactive catalog — it startled me. Wasn’t this the gadget whose omnipresent advertising campaign showed consumers kicking back in comfy chairs and definitely not working? What was it doing being so useful?
Then I started spotting iPads at more and more establishments I did business with, from restaurants to parking garages. And when I took plane trips, I noticed that many of the executive types who would have been pouring over documents on ThinkPads in the past were now doing so on Apple tablets. I stopped gawking and started taking them for granted.
Full disclosure: I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where businesses of all sizes are especially fearless about trying new technologies, and Apple fans are everywhere. Even so, it’s an impressive showing for a device that’s only been around since April 2010 — and it reminds me of the era, more than three decades ago, when small companies began putting early PCs such as the Apple II and Radio Shack TRS-80 to work.
The Tablet PC — Take One
The more I contemplated the iPad’s popularity among small businesses, the less weird it seemed. I thought back to Microsoft’s introduction of the Tablet PC a decade ago. The company thought that its much-hyped creation, which ran Windows, would begin to replace laptops within a few years.
Microsoft, of course, thought wrong.
But Tablet PCs did find an intensely loyal — albeit limited — audience in the business world. I still run into folks who love to take copious handwritten notes using Microsoft’s OneNote application.
Tablet PCs also turned out to be extremely useful as digital clipboards, often running industry-specific software. (One example: Medscribbler, an electronic medical record system.) The market remains large enough that companies such as Fujitsu and Motion Computing continue to offer Tablet PCs today.
iPad: The Only New Tablet That Matters
Apple’s tablet is selling so well in part because it’s so many things that Tablet PCs never were. The iPad 2 is thinner and lighter than any Windows-powered tablet. Its battery life, at an honest 10 hours on a charge, is better. And the starting price of $499 is cheaper than even a bare-bones Tablet PC. So far, it’s the only new tablet that really matters. (None of the tablets based on Google’s Android operating system seem to be blockbusters; RIM’s PlayBook is a huge disappointment; HP’s TouchPad is already a goner.)
Why Tablet PCs Still Have a Place
In many ways, the iPad feels like the Tablet PC of tomorrow. It’s important, though, to understand that it doesn’t instantly render existing Tablet PCs obsolete. You use your fingers, not a stylus, to interact with an iPad; that’s a boon in many ways, but some business applications are far more pen-friendly than they are finger-friendly. For instance, A company called Active Ink, which makes software for converting paper forms for use on Tablet PCs, has a good blog post explaining why it thinks its products won’t ever make sense on an iPad — at least unless Apple decides to make one that works well with a pen. (The third-party pens available for the iPad have stubby tips that don’t let you write precisely.)
Some of the companies that swear by Tablet PCs will probably also look on iPads as too fragile to stand up to the knocks and bruises of on-the-go business use, even though they’re reasonably sturdy as consumer-electronics devices go and can be protected with some seriously heavy-duty cases. Most Tablet PCs that are still on the market are designed to be rugged enough to withstand drops and other manhandling.
The iPad may not be ready to replace the Tablet PC in one fell swoop, but I suspect that it’ll ultimately be used for more purposes by more people in more organizations than Microsoft’s pen-driven computers ever were. Already, you can tell that Apple is watching the business market out of one corner of one eye: It’s opened an iPad in Business section on its website and is adding features that corporate customers want, such as mass deployment of apps to multiple iPads at once. And numerous specialized business apps are already here, such as DaVinci, an in-the-field tool for appraisers, and AutoCAD WS, a tablet-sized version of the industry-standard computer-drafting package.
Not Just a Laptop Replacement
As for my own small business: I cheerfully admit that when I bought an iPad, I used it mostly for Web surfing, book reading, and music listening. Little by little, however, it’s elbowed its way into my work life.
In August, I headed to Berlin to attend IFA, a massive trade show for the consumer electronics industry. I took along my trusty laptop. But I also packed an iPad 2, which I’d equipped with a case called a ZaggFolio that includes a notebook-like keyboard, letting me type as swiftly on the iPad as I could on any more conventional computer.
I ended up leaving the notebook in my hotel room and toting the iPad everywhere I went. Even ensconced in the ZaggFolio, it was easier to carry than a full-blown notebook. It had built-in wireless broadband, a feature which my laptop does not. It ran the apps I needed to get my work done, such as Apple’s Pages word processor, Cisco’s WebEx online-meeting service, and Bitolithic’s ThinkBook organizer. And the iPad 2’s marathon battery meant I never had to worry about running out of juice, even if I left the hotel at 9 a.m., didn’t return until 11 p.m., and spent much of the time in between writing, doing email, and performing Web research.
The odds that I’m going to scrap my laptop any time soon are exactly zero: It’s still way better for heavy-duty Excel spreadsheets, serious PhotoShop use, and any number of tasks for which the iPad lacks the requisite computing muscle or proper applications. But I’m glad that when I’m not doing those things, I have the option of heading out with an iPad rather than a notebook. It’s like owning both an SUV and a bicycle.
So should you bring one or more iPads into your business? You need two things to make it make sense: a genuine interest in trying something new, and the right software for your work. If you’ve read this far, the odds are high that you’re willing to give the iPad a chance. If you’re not sure whether the apps you need are available, check out Apple’s information on business programs — and maybe even custom development, if your needs are truly unique.
The iPad may or may not be right for you, but I think it’s already proven it has endless possibilities as a productivity tool. One of the things I like best about small companies is that they spend their own money very, very carefully — and every iPad I see out there in the real world of everyday business is another sign that Apple’s tablet is already a fixture, not a fad.
The post Why It’s Time for Your Small Business to Try the iPad appeared first on AllBusiness.com
The post Why It’s Time for Your Small Business to Try the iPad appeared first on AllBusiness.com.