When people hear the word “Apple”, most don’t think of a round red or green fruit, they think of the company. Apple and its products have become well known, with not only a loyal fan base, but products that look good and work well. One of the most successful products is the Apple iPad, and in early March, Apple introduced the New iPad. Is it the next step forward in Tablets? Will it be useful for you in your business?
The answer: yes, and no. The New iPad (that’s the actual name) takes the good parts of the iPad 2, and adds a few improvements including a new 5 mega pixel camera. The biggest change is the New iPad has the Retina Display, with a screen resolution of 2,048 x 1,536 pixels, making it one of the best Tablet displays on the market. Unfortunately, due to this enhance display, reports of overheating are beginning to come in. Other changes include a new, slightly faster processor, and a slightly heavier (by 10 grams) body. Changes aside, the New iPad looks exactly the same as the iPad 2.
Apple has stated that the price of the New iPad will start at USD 499 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi version. There will be a version that connects to 4G mobile data networks, and the price for that version will start at USD 629 for the 16 GB version.
What Does this Mean for My Business?
In truth, the New iPad means whatever you want it to for your business. Apple has said on many occasions that they want to bridge the gap between interaction and creation with the iPad. The New iPad is a step toward this goal, but it won’t be very useful for users who work with spreadsheets or other data-heavy programs. If you or your business gives lots of presentations, and doesn’t need to use the advanced functions of programs, then the New iPad could be a useful tool. It really comes down to how you, as a manager and company, operate. You can pretty much guarantee you will find some use for the iPad, it just may not be a Key Success Factor.
The one downside is the price. As a small business it can be hard to justify spending over USD 600 per iPad with data connectivity, when the iPhone costs far less with a plan and can do pretty much the same stuff, if not more.
Scam Warning
As with most other Apple products, there is sure to be a number of scams surfacing over the next few weeks saying that you’ve won a free iPad, can get a free iPad, or any number of similar come-ons. It is a good idea to let your employees know that Apple doesn’t normally give away its products, and will definitely not post on people’s Facebook pages or put banners on websites advertising such a thing.
Apple has taken steps toward giving businesses a new way to operate, and the New iPad offers some great functions for businesses. If you’re thinking of adopting the iPad into your business, or would like to know more about the New iPad or Apple’s products, please contact us.
The new iPad also poses some new challenges for us web developers. Since it now has 2x the resolution and it also scales websites to fit the screen, that means as it scales up website graphics it makes them blurry and unfocused. With the push towards mobile devices, screen sizes were shrinking and we were making things smaller. Now, it has blown up in the opposite direction.
Thanks Keith. Good points all. It easy to overlook the unintended consequences of the enhanced features that we all crave. It appears that Apple has chosen not to offer the 128GB model which makes no sense given the larger files required to fully utilize the retina display.