Doing business with an iPad – the reality behind the hype

A lot of rot is circulating about the new iPad, often generated by folks who have never laid eyes on the machine never mind made extensive hands-on use of it. I’ve seen reviews talking about reliability, about it being unsuitable for business… the list goes on – and mostly from those lacking any experience of the product.

Why listen to me? When the iPad was released in the US I had one shipped across almost immediately, despite lack of iTunes support in the UK. I wasn’t prepared to take the word of others and wanted to see for myself if this device was going to be useful and to see if there was a future for reducing or eliminating paperwork.  So, in very short order, based on daily use of the iPad since its launch in the US (and by that I mean used almost every day since then, sometimes all day), here is some information that may be of use to those thinking of buying an iPad for work.

First, the issue of Wi-Fi. The only issue I am aware of is that the iPad occasionally forgets the login password and does not seem to track the best signal if you move from signal area to signal area within a building. It is a minor issue, and does not really cause me any problems. I'm sure a fix will come along soon as this is not an issue with the iPhone. 

Now, the matter of business use.  I have instructed our head office to stop sending me the reams and reams of paper it usually bombards me with – all my papers now go onto the company extranet  (Sharepoint).  I receive automatic email notification of the availability of documents and as long as I’m within range of a Wi-Fi signal I can download using the likes of the GoodReader program (a bargain at 59p) and store the docs locally on the iPad. The largest document I’ve had the pleasure of using was 95MB comprisingmore than 400 pages of scanned documents – just about the worse combination… No problem. I also use another package which cost peanuts to let me scribble on PDFs and open multiple documents at once.

Multitasking. After extensive use I have to say I do not miss the ability to do umpteen jobs at once – the ONE thing I’d like is to run Skype constantly in the background – and that of course will come in the autumn update. Most programs start up where they left off so they may as well be multitasking – but without the overhead.

People who say the iPad is not compatible with Microsoft are talking rubbish – I regularly open the latest DOCX files from Office 2007 as well as spread-sheets and other documents. At least one program can SAVE in these formats.

Using the iPad to take notes in meetings. The 10-hour battery life makes it possible to do an all-day meeting without a cable in sight. Those who lug around heavy bags full of laptops, power supplies and endless paperwork look on with envy. Armed with properly bookmarked PDF files I can view and search through large documents more quickly than with paper.

What about Flash? Well, I’d prefer if the iPad could handle Flash, but considering that YouTube, Blip and others now offer iPad compatibility and even the BBC iPlayer is now iPad compatible, it won’t be long before that argument goes out of the window. You can watch a good number of the Freeview channels including BBC News 24 for free on the iPad, not to mention most radio stations.

When in Spain, as they say… I have a (small) place in Spain and last week I was there. The iPad can’t handle dongles but I have a 3G dongle and I simply put the Sim into a phone that has Wi-Fi and using a cheap program made the phone look like a Wi-Fi access point – others may prefer to get the 3G version of the iPad itself - as I already have a phone I didn’t fancy two subscriptions and annoyingly Apple won’t let you tether an iPhone to an iPad.

Skype and GotoMeeting work well – saving a fortune in calls when overseas as long as there is Wi-Fi available. Emails using Microsoft Exchange, Google Mail and others work absolutely fine as indeed do Exchange calendars and contacts.

Do I have any issues with the product? Of course I do – why on EARTH didn’t Apple put a forward-facing camera in for Skype etc. Also being able to read memory sticks would have been nice but why not go the whole hog and put in Windows? Erm, no! The fact is that Apple have a great product on their hands. Almost everyone I know who I’ve shown it to in business and otherwise wants one – I should have been a salesman but I’m NOT.

I‘m a ruthless consumer and if a better alternative comes on the market, I'll probably switch. But for now, Apple is onto a winner.