5 Ways the iPad is Changing Business

Since Apple unveiled the iPad this past January, debate has loomed over its usefulness and potential. But in the two months since the iPad's release, it's become clear that while its features aren't necessarily revolutionary, the combination of its size and functionality is. By combining the features of a smart phone and a computer into an easily portable touch screen hybrid, the iPad has opened up a world of new interactive opportunities. This month we'll explore how the iPad is affecting a variety of industries and what we might expect to see in its future.

1.Making Healthcare More Efficient

For years, physicians and nurses have been using smart phones and laptops for ordering prescriptions, looking up drug information, and other efficiencies. However these devices are often either too small for viewing charts or not portable enough for doctors to keep with them at all times. The iPad marries these devices and allows for one, easily portable device nurses and physicians can use to access charts, view test results, and check drug information. In fact, one in five doctors say they plan they buy an iPad according to a survey by medical software vendor, Epocrates. In addition to being efficient for doctors, the iPad can be used as an interactive teaching tool to help patients better understand their conditions and treatment options through charts, diagrams, and other applications.

2. Empowering Your Sales Force

The iPad comes equipped with Keynote presentation software, which along with its touch screen and portability makes it an excellent sales tool, capable of sharing product demonstrations, images, and presentations. Much like the health care system, companies with large sales forces have been equipping their teams with laptops and smartphones for years in order to improve efficiencies and input orders. The iPad, being more portable than a laptop and more capable than an iPhone for presentations, combines the best features of these devices and has the capabilities to facilitate sales presentations to customers and offer operational efficiencies to sales teams.

3. Creating Enhanced Virtual Experiences

Many organizations from real estate brokers to restaurants to scientific laboratories incorporate virtual tours into their websites, either as sales tools or to just to give their target audiences a sense of who they are and what they do. The iPad's size and touch screen make it an excellent way to view a virtual tour, and offer an intuitive user experience, similar to using a touch screen kiosk. Thanks to its portability, the device even has the potential to allow users to navigate through virtual tours just by moving the device in the direction they want to go. ItalyGuides, which touts itself “A Sightseeing Revolution” has created 360 degree virtual tours and travel guides for cities throughout Italy, all available on the iPad. These types of intuitive and panoramic virtual tours represent an incredible opportunity not only for tourism organizations, but for education and private industries as well.

4. Making Education More Engaging

The iPad offers learning opportunities at any age from pre-school all the way through higher education and beyond. For young children, there are applications that feature interactive maps for learning basic geography and even reading applications to help children to learn the alphabet and the basics of reading. At the collegiate level, Seton Hill University, a Catholic liberal arts university in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, announced plans in March to give every incoming student an iPad in Fall 2010. Seton Hill says that this will create a dynamic and connected community of learners, while allowing any classroom to become a virtual computer lab.

5. Taking Electronic Publishing to the Next Level

Resources like Google Books and devices such as the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader began the movement toward digital literature. The iPad takes that to the next level. Children's book publishers like Disney and See Here Studios have begun creating interactive books for the iPad, which engage children and enhance their reading experiences. The iPad presents opportunities for the world of academic publishing a well. Imagine being able to not only read about a historical event in a book, but take a virtual tour of the location where it took place. College students and universities are also excited about the opportunity and potential cost savings of downloading textbooks rather than purchasing hard copies each semester.

While the iPad has explicit implications for certain industries, such as healthcare, it unlocks a variety of opportunities and challenges that apply to almost any business. If you haven't checked out your website on an iPad yet, we encourage you to take a look. Since the iPad does not support Flash, you may be surprised to find that your site looks different than expected. It's important to understand how many users are visiting your site via iPads, realize that that number will surely go up in the future, and incorporate that into your organization's long term plans. Organizations that begin the process of optimizing their websites for the iPad now will unlock new opportunities for interacting with their audiences as the device makes its way through the adoption lifecycle.

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