What is in a name? Apple decided to cut costs by eliminating one or two characters the branding of their new device. This is unfortunate for all the folks who had lotteries for '3', 'HD', '2S'. Calling the new iPad just the "iPad." is bound to cause confusion, but it will generate saying the name a lot, that is marketing. I am not certain of where the following dialogue originated, it is an interesting discussion about the recent purchase of a new iPad• Tim: So Phil, what did you get?
• Phil: I picked up an iPhone 4S and an iPad too.
• Tim: An iPad 2? Why didn't you just get the new iPad?
• Phil: I did get an iPad.
• Tim: You just said you picked up and iPad 2.
• Phil: No, I sold my iPad 2 on eBay last week.
• Tim: If you just sold your iPad 2 last week, why did you buy another one?
• Phil: I didn't, I bought the iPad.
• Tim: Who's on first?
Take a look at the what, why and how about adapting the use of any Tablet within your arsenal of road warrior tools. There are debates that will go on for a long time. It is not about whether one has to pick a side and if you are not on the same side as me one of us is very wrong and should be hung by their thumbs. That is silly, nut will happen.
Rather the iPad is another step forward in how we choose to use computing to support our business and personal lives. Clearly, there are a few essentials that need our attention:
• Mobility
• Ease of carrying in our bag of tools
• Internet and Email access
• Text messaging
• Reading documents, books, publications
• And more
Artists and photographers may indeed love the increased graphical capability. You may not be graphic-phobic, but you must recognize the rising significance of images and video. For a more restful travel interruption, watching a movie or TV show or sports can help reduce stress. Being able to use the tablet to review any document, report, correspondence or work notes is really useful.
The capacity to carry the tablet and a smartphone provides more than sufficient support for your tasks between office departure and office return.
Why consider the new iPad? It has greater capacity, better camera, a great high resolution screen and accessories that make it all useful. The individual writing the next great American novel may want to use a laptop with multiple screens. If you are the tax specialist doing multiple returns, set up your office with three screens, a scanner and a printer. However if you are a receiver of information, frequent web searcher and need to explore what is happening in your firm or in the news, iPad makes a great tool.
There is news from a company, www.Incentient.com, they have an application that has just started being used for restaurants, called SmartCellar. Rather than print out a long constantly updated wine list, the diners get an iPad to select from current inventory. A commercial real estate friend has a tablet application that identifies available properties and is able to zoom in on pictures. This is effective at eliminating properties that do not match criteria before they leave the office.
Forrester Research in their latest Forrsights workforce employee survey (http://bit.ly/xO20NU) asked more than 9,900 information workers in 17 countries about all of the devices they use for work, including personal devices they use for work purposes. The results showed that respondents use an average of about 2.3 devices. This translates to 74% use two or more devices for work, and 52% used three or more!
The opportunities have some boundaries. The reality is that iPad and other Tablets will expand in our arsenal of usability devices. Somebody once said who would ever want a computer on their desk. Another said cellular phones are ridiculous. The world is not flat and there are plenty of choices to be made for what can enhance your work and personal activities.