Pros and Cons of iPad Mini for Enterprise
Andrew Becraft via Compfight
Pros
The Price of the iPad Mini
Apple is not exactly known for their low prices, and to be honest the everyday consumer can probably find a much more powerful small sized tablet for a lower price. Fortunately, Apple has app inventory and stability on their side. For a starting price of $329, enterprises can arm a staff of 30 under $10,000.
The Size of the iPad Mini
The 7.9 inch iPad mini is meant to compete with the Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7, which are both around 7 inch tablets. Although Apple was not supposed to release a competitor to smaller tablets, they decided to go head to head with their main competitors for double the price… (it is amazing what brand equity does)
Developer Support for iOS
Apple offers excellent developer support and iOS development is fairly straightforward for team of software engineers. The iOS standard development kit provides excellent pre-built user interface elements allowing for user friendly organizational tools
Existing App Inventory of iOS
It is hard to ignore the existing app inventory of the iOS platform. Your enterprise staff can play angry birds, temple run and draw something while at the office (note the sarcasm). All jokes aside, iOS has many applications that can be used internally, and can even be integrated into a custom application.
Cons
File Management Can be Tricky with iOS
Everyone is aware of the issues with iOS opening certain file types. There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to edit documents on the go. There are some third party apps that work, but they can be frustrating as well.
No Microsoft Office on Apple Devices
In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft office is not available on iOS devices. Unless Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer decides to give in to the temptation of iOS app development, we do not predict Office is coming to iPad mini anytime soon. If Microsoft was not trying to compete heavily in the mobile space, it may be a possibility. If Office is important, maybe a windows surface tablet is a good option.
Read More4 tweets and 6 Stories about the iPad Mini
Acknowledging there is no one-size-fits-all solution in the mobile industry, Apple Inc. is wading into a product category its executives once dismissed as irrelevant.
The company behind the iPad introduced a shrunken version of the world’s most popular tablet on Tuesday. The iPad Mini, with its 7.9-inch screen, is smaller and less expensive than the traditional 10-inch model, but is otherwise similar in form and function. It allows Apple to capitalize on the success of the iPad by targeting customers who may be turned off by the tablet’s size or its price tag.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/apple-thinks-smaller-with-ipad-mini/article4631610/
More articles:
Read MoreInfographic: Smartphone and Tablet Use in the Classroom
Here’s a neat infographic showing how current mobile technology is affecting modern classrooms. Students and teachers both agree that tablets can facilitate learning and studying. In fact, teachers want more technology.
Source: Mashable
Read MoreInfographic: The Explosion of Mobile
Here’s a great infographic illustrating the rapid increase of mobile usage for retail purposes.
Types of Apps to Anticipate for 2012
Our previous post about the benefits of native apps clearly outlines the ways in which they can be better than web-based apps. Here are some types of apps to anticipate for 2012, made possible through native-app attributes.
- Mobile Social Networking
According to Peters (2012), the attraction on social networking lies in allowing people to share information in real-time, whether it be their interests, the restaurant at which they are currently enjoying dinner, or photos of their surroundings, the people they are conversing with, the drink they’re recommending. Built-in smartphone features such as cameras and GPS streamlines this sharing process. (Stats for mobile usage for social networking)“It’s all about context, frictionless sharing and push-notification-driven user interfaces. The best apps won’t tell you about every random person or restaurant that you walk by; just the ones that will trulymatter.”
-— Brett Martin, Co-founder and CEO, Sonar - Location-Based Services
Location information provided through a smartphone’s built in GPS allows native apps to cater information and advertisements to a user’s location (restaurants, libraries, other users, etc).“We are really starting to see location-based services ‘come of age’. People are realising that sharing their location often offers some kind of reward in terms of a discount or deal. It is the combination of time and context – directing people towards a deal when they can easily redeem it – that unlocks a powerful tool for marketers to develop precise targeting approaches”
– James Fergusson, Global Director, TNS - Context-Aware Service
Related to location-based services are context-aware services. These services take into account a user’s smartphone history use, interests, activities, schedule, preferences, amongst other things, to provide the user with information and advertisements customized to be relevant to them. - Object-Recognition
Object-Recognition technology is becoming more and more developed. It relies on a smartphone’s built-in camera and other sensors to recognize various items in a user’s surroundings, and then to provide to the user information related to the object. Imagine using your smartphone’s camera to view the CN Tower, and getting information about its hours of operation, admission fees, and whether anyone in your contacts list is currently in the tower! - Mobile Instant Messaging
Mobile instant messaging services such as Trillian, BBM, and Google Talk allows users to talk to their friends from what used to be just desktop messaging services. Johnson (2011) predicts that mobile instant messaging usage will triple by 2016, but will never replace SMS.“SMS is less socially intruding because users don’t feel the need to respond the messages instantly. [...] On the other hand, desktop-based apps have a sense of urgency and timeliness to them that makes users feel like they have to keep responding – similar to an actual conversation.
– Daniel Ashdown, Research Analyst, Juniper ResearchInstead, it is predicted that smartphone users will use both SMS and mobile instant messaging to fulfil their needs (Johnson, 2011).
- Mobile Commerce
Mobile commerce thus far is, in its most basic sense, an extension of eCommerce. However, mCommerce is expected to have unique mobile features such as checking in to a store (allowing retailers to know you are present), and adding products to a shopping cart by using object-recognition or bar code scanning technology. Here are interesting infographics on retail mobile apps usage,mCommerce strategies, and mCommerce stats for the United States. - Mobile Payment
Near Field Communication payment systems is not predicted to be widely used until 2015. Before that can happen, however, payment solution providers (Interac, PayPal, etc) will have to address issues such as ease-of-use and implementation while maintaining a high level of security, as well as service coverage and user awareness.
References
- Johnson, L. (2011, June 22). Mobile instant messaging usage expected to triple by 2016: Study. Retrieved from http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/research/10266.html
- Peters, M. (2012, May 5). Why the future of social is in the palm of your hand. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2012/05/05/future-social-mobile/
- Pettey, C., and Gousduff, L. (2011, February 10). Gartner identifies 10 consumer mobile applications to watch in 2012. Retrieved from http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1544815
- Russell, J. (2012, April 24). Location-based services have huge untapped potential worldwide. Retrieved from http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2012/04/24/report-location-based-mobile-services-have-huge-untapped-potential-worldwide/
- Shroeder, S. (2009, July 10). The future of the iPhone: Intelligent object recognition. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/07/10/iphone-object-recognition/
Read More
iPad Usage Trends
With the iPad well into its second year of public use, new trends have emerged. Elmer-Dewitt (2012) reports that nearly 60% of web browsing is now done on iPads and smartphones.
Yarow (2012) breaks down iPad usage in the following graph:
Source: Business Insider
Infographics have also shown a trend in using the iPad as a nanny.
References:
- Elmer-Dewitt, P. (2012, July 19) How people use their iPads: Two new surveys. Retrieved from http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/07/19/how-people-use-their-ipads-two-new-surveys
- Yarow, J. (2012, July 19) How people actually use the iPad: Results from our exclusive survey. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/ipad-usage-survey-results-2012-7?op=1
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