iPad Reviews Are Out: Should Business Owners Take Notice?

Since the iPad was officially unveiled in late January marketers, public relation practitioners and others have been speculating how this device could aid them at work. Could the portability and size give them an edge while on the go? It should certainly be easier to carry around than a laptop—and let’s face it is seems cool.

With the release date just around the corner, the first reviews are out and they seem pretty good. Although businesses might not be replacing their laptop for an iPad, it does seem it will be a great outlet for other things. “It’s no laptop replacement, but as a giant iPod touch, it’s a huge success,” reports Tech Crunch of a review done by NY Times tech guru David Pogue.

eMarketer reported a comScore report that said 50% of iPad soon-to-be users are planning to use the device to browse the Internet, and 48% said they would check their email on the device. So the better question business owners should be asking themselves is, “is my website compatible for different mediums.” Meaning can you browse the Internet on a cell phone, computer and other devices like the iPad and get the same information easily?

Getting Technical
When it comes to Flash based websites, the iPad is going to falter. Apple does not support Flash so web developers need to be aware of this. One fix is to implement the new line of HTML code—HTML5. This code is supposed to allow programmers to use video without using Flash, but isn’t quite ready for use.

When looking at your website analytics, see how many of your visitors are browsing in mobile browsers—specifically iPod Touch and iPhone browsers. If there are a large number of visitors using these devices, they might invest in an iPad as well.

e-reader
Going back to the comScore report, “they [respondents] would pony up for content specially formatted for e-readers, including 68% of 25- to 34-year-olds and 59% of 35- to 44-year-olds. Owners of iPhones or iPod touches were more likely than average to say they would pay for newspaper and magazine content on e-readers, at 52% versus 22%.”

Seems to be that the best attribute for the iPad is the e-reader capabilities and surfing the Internet. Apps could bring the iPad more use to businesses, but many people aren’t seeing the apps as a “big deal.” “Relatively few respondents [comScore report] said they would download apps for the device.”

For now we will all have to wait and see how the iPad will play out for business owners, but the consensus seems to be that it will be fun for surfing the net and reading your favorite newspaper or book.