Don’t know if you have heard, but Apple will be releasing the iPad. To give you a better understanding what the iPad does, think of it as an advanced and larger version of the iPod Touch/iPhone, just without the phone capability.
When rumors of the iPad was coming out, my initial thought, along with many, I assumed and hoped that the iPad would be more of a tablet. There was also another rumor that the iPad would retail between $700-$1000 CDN (which many thought it was reasonable). If the iPad was a tablet, I could see many insurance and insurance-related companies purchasing them.
Problem is the iPad is more of an iPod Touch/iPhone, just larger. You can download apps that allow you to draw with your fingers, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t give you consistency or accuracy. This iPad becomes just something to carry around because it is light, and do all the things an iPod Touch can do, just bigger and more expensive. Apple, I love you and your products, but why call it an iPad when it is so similar to your iPod Touch?!
Browsing the web, I found many people were also slightly disappointed that the iPad was not a true tablet. I have friends in the graphics industry and they all love Macs because of their powerful software and graphics cards. I’m sure that they would love to have a tablet that was an OS platform.
Knowing Apple, within the year a true tablet will be released. When it does, and if the prices are reasonable, I can see businesses purchasing an Apple tablet – not just those in the graphics and arts industry, but also services and insurance and insurance-related industries. But why an Apple over other existing tablets? My prediction – because it will be more powerful and cheaper.
Disaster restoration firms can use tablets to sketch buildings, get work authorization forms signed, and email it all off instantly. As a further development, an app could be created that allows this tablet to become a transaction machine where you can input credit card number and allow customers to sign virtually – like many machines today in retail stores. This would all improve productivity and save time.
I know that tablets are not a new technology, but I can see Apple taking it one step further and revolutionizing it. Would you buy an Apple tablet for work if this existed?
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