“Not to sound like a broken record, but the iPad is a consumer device. Actually, as far as I am concerned anything with an Apple logo is–by default–intended primarily for a consumer audience,” Bradley writes. “Despite the passionate zeal of the Apple faithful, you won’t see any Fortune 500 companies lining up to dump Windows-based PC’s for Macs, or BlackBerry smartphones for iPhones any time soon.”
MacDailyNews Take: The third largest U.S company is Mac- and iPhone-based.
Bradley continues, “That said, the iPad–and other Apple devices–can be more than functional business tools as well. The following is a selection of apps that business professionals can use to transform the media-consuming toy into a productive business tool:”
• Salesforce Mobile
• a href=”http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=VeZI/RsU2UI&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Ffedex-mobile-for-iphone%252Fid304462049%253Fmt%253D8%2526uo%253D6%2526partnerId%253D30″ target=”itunes_store”>FedEx Mobile
• Meebo
• Freshbooks (MacDailyNews Note: (FreshBooks have discontinued their app due to instability on newer iPhones and instead recommends MiniBooks for iPhone.)
Bradley writes, “This is an exceptionally small sampling of what is available… Despite the repeated mantra that the iPhone and iPad are not for business, there is also a diverse and growing selection of apps designed specifically to change that perception.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sean” for the heads up.]
and many more…
I have worked for 3 Fortune 500 companies that did.
This is silly. What are the primary functions of the average business worker these days? E-mail is by far #1. Calendaring. Public and Private Social Media Applications. Corporate intranets. Brainstorming, project management, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations. VPN access. VNC connections… all sorts of cloud based applications.
The iPad can handle 99% of this for $500.
Sorry, forgot to mention Exchange servers access. iPad does that too.
Heck, and with a nice bluetooth headset, and Skype, it’s a quite capable mobile VOIP tool as well.
Add to this that now business people don’t need to carry newspapers, magazines, and books when they travel, and oh yeah they’re gonna be interested in iPads.
wow, author is stupid, fortune 500 and small business alike are flocking to the iphone because it does more, and does it better
tech support for mac is lower than PC desktop
ipad will literally REPLACE some PC Desktops that are just used for dedicated web apps and email. Watch and see. Yes, $500 is not really cheap (you can buy a large flat screen TV for that or 4-5 Blu-Ray players) BUT a lot cheaper than a Windows PC with keyboard, mouse, and tech support and virus worries, etc..
Wake up and smell the Apple cooking
Uhm, Apple has fallen to 5th, today.
MDN this is an interesting point:
“…MacDailyNews Take: The third largest U.S company is Mac- and iPhone-based….”
Apple should publish white papers on how they use their own technology internally.
you hav no clue what you’re talking about. once and for ever: the iPhone runs OS X! And so does the iPad. It has just a different GUI on top then the Mac.
It’s funny.
All this crap is like sports for me. I don’t care much for professional sports. I think I replace that with rooting for a computer company.
Thank God SOMEONE is turning this “media-consuming toy” into a productive business tool.
/sarcasm
The iPad will be as much of a business tool as businesses find uses for it and developers write software for it. The OS is just an easy way to access the software and get things done. The real problem is people who won’t look past an image to see how something could be useful and create more productive employees.
Businesses will find many, many, many uses for the iPad, even more than for the iPhone. It will just depend on the third party apps and how soon they are available to meet a particular business’ needs.
Just like any other tool.
Phrases such as “primarily for a consumer audience”, “media-consuming toy into a productive business tool:” or use of fanboy or fanbois immediately make me wonder how large the M$ check to the author or company was for that particular month.
I work for a large ins company and I sit near the Mac support group. They’ve already ordered two for their department and they’ve seen another order for 8 more from the R&I;department. There’s also a mobile web group that has ordered a couple for development.
Someone posted that the iPad can handle the Exchange Server access. Is this an assumption based on the fact that it uses the iPhone OS?
I’m a Mac user (desktop and laptop), but at the office they use Windows machines. The email system is Exchange Server based.
Recently we decided to purchase some “laptops” to serve a specific purpose. The IT director suggested to me we could use iPads. We were ready to use except Apple has not stated explicitly that Exchange is supported. We do have it on our iPhones, and I recall Apple touting Exchange support when the iPhone 3Gs was being introduced.
As much as I love Apple products, sometimes the whole dance is irritating. Just state whether or not the product supports the protocol. No big trade secrets there.
For now, I’ve told the IT guy to wait. Don’t order until Apple gives some clarity or the device comes out and we know for sure. The Board will not be happy if we bought the devices then discovered there is no Exchange support.
70% of Fortune co’s are trialling iPhone…
And as for Windows – read this! http://rixstep.com/2/1/20100312,00.shtml
iPad needs to have black backside, then it would automatically count as a business tool.
The sort of blather we expect from FeeCee World
@ David F.
Yes, the IPad has Exchange Support.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/mail.html
I posit that among the reasons there is no webcam on the iPad is because many places of business BAN all non-official photography. In hospitals the use of smart phones with cameras without approval will get you fired on the spot (HIPPA-privacy, patient confidentiality).
WHAT THE EFF IS ALL THIS ABOUT ‘NOT HAVING ALL THE DETAILS YET????? WHAT DIDN’T THEY TELL US, WHAT ARE WE MISSING? People are morons I can’t stand it.
I am a member of the Mac using business community (for 3 decades), and a member of the economic group that contributes by far the most to the US economy – Small Business.
I feel a bit sorry for some of the fortune 500 employees who are forced to use “standardized” systems.
Multiple studies consistently show that productivity is higher on the Mac OS.
I have my iPad on order and have already envisioned many ways that it is going to add to my productivity, save me time, and cut costs.
@ Exchange:
Thank you. We checked earlier (a week or so ago) and didn’t see that explicitly stated. I’m telling our IT guy to proceed. We are ordering about 8 for trials before rolling out more extensively. As an aside, we are a government agency with about 8,000 employees. Who says government doesn’t embrace innovation? Much appreciated.
See the articles:
About 10% of Microsoft (Fortune 500) employees get their e-mail using an iPhone.
Now that I’m using the web client for Outlook, I can use any machine with a browser. It’s not even worth the trouble of letting my company lock up my iPhone for Exchange when the web client works just as well.
I know of various position in my office that can be easy using the iPad with iWork, about 300 people or so.