iPad as a Business Tool?

After two weeks hands on with the iPad, I’m still not 100 % sure I’m ready to throw out my laptop.  

The question is, If I did throw out my laptop, what would I be giving up. So let’s take an imaginary trip. First, as I scramble through the gauntlet that is the modern airport, I’m REAL excited about dropping about 5 pounds in my carry on luggage. The 1.5 pound iPad is a major change in both space and weight in my brief case. 

Assuming I have wifi access where ever I go, I have fast internet connectivity for my email, internet and more. So that is a key. You need wifi unless you have the 3G version coming May 7th. If you are comfortable that wifi is available, then this is a pretty sweet little $500 package. 

If you aren’t comfortable relying on the availability of FREE wifi, then you need to get one of the 3G versions which add $130 to the base prices of the 16, 32 or 64 GB models at $499, 599, or $699 respectively.  So you are looking at $639 - $829 for the 3G Ready iPad. 

The good news is that you can order 3G service on a monthly basis directly from the iPad. You can choose 250 MB or unlimited plans for $14.99 or $29.99. If you are a traveler and you add that to the weight and space factor this could be the best money you’ve spent in a long time. 

But can you work with the iPad? I would say, pretty much. 

You can access your office PC via two apps that I’ve tried; WinAdmin or VNC. There are several others like LogMeIn. WinAdmin is 8.99 for iPad and provides very nice accessibility to all your windows desktop. 

VNC is free but you pay a nominal amount for the software on your PC. 

It isn’t as nice as working with a mouse and keyboard, but if you have to find something remotely, you can. 

You can view office document attachments in mail with no problem. Editing or creating them is a bit trickier. Apple has it’s own office suite called iWork. You can open and edit Word, Excel or Powerpoint files, but you can only save them in Office format with Pages (the Word equivalent). That’s a problem. The good news is that all the apps are very elegant and have features you will wish Office had, but your Office friends won’t be abel to edit your spreadsheets or presentations unless they are iWorks users.  The good news is that Pages, Numbers and Keynote are only $9.95 each. You can produce some great results with them, so it might be worth a try. 

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have been able to use my 8x8 VOIP app from the iPad, which means you could spend a morning in your hotel room making free calls from the iPad. 

If your one of our many GoldMine CRM users, you would be able to access Goldmine via VNC or Win AdMin. WMobile, works fine in Safari and may be the best current option for a web based GoldMine solution. 

Learn more here. 

Hmm which reminds me that until IPhone OS 4 arrives in September, you can’t multi task with the iPad. That’s bad. You can’t be working on a spreadsheet, make a call, check your email and come back to the spreadsheet. Each application closes when you leave it. 

On a less business like front, I’ll add that reading on the iPad is great. There are apps for most major publications and the iBook store is great if you read a lot on the road. 

Bottom line, the iPad is cool, but I’m not sure you can leave the laptop at home just yet. You may not want to leave the iPad home either because it’s fun, but I would think that in 3 to 6 months you may be able to. Something to look forward to.