For this week’s Guest Post Friday at Musings, we welcome Martha Sperry for another great tech related guest post. Martha (@advocatesstudio on Twitter) is an attorney with extensive experience in the insurance industry. Martha also maintains a research and writing practice, AdvantageAdvocates with emphasis on research and written product for professionals and web consulting. Her blog on law, research, writing and technology Advocate’s Studio. Martha also has let Musings invade the Studio today, so please check it out!
I am delighted to be here at Musings once again to reprise a post I submitted around a year ago – iPad Apps for Business Types. Much has changed in the ensuing year: the iPad has had its first birthday; a new model, the iPad 2, was released two months ago with some new features; new tablet competitors featuring Android and Blackberry operating systems are now available to challenge the iPad’s supremacy; and, we can finally lay to rest the notion that tablets are toys meant for consumers but not for serious professionals.
I want to focus here on a couple of points. First, the iPad 2 does have added functionality that should interest business users. Second, some seriously great apps have been developed for iOS and, specifically, the iPad, that make this tool a highly customizable, business machine. At a price starting at just under $500, they make tons of sense as a secondary, mobile device and may soon start to take the place of the primary desktop / laptop computer.
Why should you consider an iPad 2? Think Four C’s: cameras (front and back and video); connectivity (HDTV connection allows you to show any app up on a big, high definition screen); crunching speed (the new faster processor shows and means greater efficiencies for business-heavy multi-tasking); and, capable browsing (software enhancements make the browser better than ever.
But the real reason you should consider the iPad 2 is the apps. Picking out apps to highlight here is no easy task. With over 70,000 apps specific to iPad (and a few hundred thousand more iPhone apps that can work on the iPad), there is a veritable ocean of options.
There are several apps that consistently make the top 10 business app lists and it would be easy pickings to simply repeat them here. I thought it might be more beneficial to touch on a few apps that are not necessarily within the “usual suspects”, but nonetheless take full advantage of the iPad’s unique user interface and capabilities to promote your business interests.
So without further ado, I bring you, iPad Apps for Business Types, Part 2:
