I have to admit that I am a Microsoft fan. I’ve been involved with Microsoft products since the days of MS DOS. I survived the mouse, Windows, Office, Servers, SQL, Exchange, pretty much all the products that Microsoft has created that relate to small business. I was not lured into the Apple world at all. Although, I do own a couple of iPods. Nothing wrong with Apple products, in fact they are very good. It’s just that everything I do involves Microsoft products and I don’t have time or available brain cells to learn the Apple environment.
About a year or so ago we started having Clients start to ask about the iPad. I decided to go out and buy one so that I could speak intelligently about how it fits into the small business environment. So I purchased an iPad. I hated it. Couldn’t figure out how to get around in it, close programs, print, etc. All the stuff I could do very easily in the familiar Windows environment. But I stuck to it. I started to realize that there are a lot of very nice features in the iOS environment. It’s great with social stuff, basic email is very good, although I do miss some Outlook functionality when I’m using the iPad. But, I still felt that other than email and web browsing, the business use of this device was lacking. I wanted to be able to use my MS Office products, especially OneNote, my favorite app these days. I found various “compatible” programs in the app store. They were OK but were not the real thing.
Then things started to change. My original iPad was stolen so I purchased an iPad mini. Around the same time Microsoft released OneNote for the iPad. And I started using SkyDrive (now OneDrive) to store some of my stuff in the cloud. The combination of OneNote on the iPad and having my OneNote notebooks in the cloud really started to show promise. I took my mini to all my meetings with the agenda that I created on my desktop available to me on the iPad. During the meeting I take notes on the iPad and it’s instantly available on all my other devices. Great stuff. I ended up winning my current iPad Air at a trade show. I can honestly say that the iPad has become a valuable device in my arsenal. It is the device I use during meetings and after hours. The combination of social applications, OneNote, newsreaders and other available apps have made the iPad a useful business device for me.
This week Microsoft made the iPad even more useful. They released Microsoft Office for iPad. This means that full versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are now available on the iPad in addition to OneNote. And they did a great job with these apps. For a first release these apps are amazing. I will be doing a more detailed blog post about each individual app in the future, but I can say these apps rock.
I still prefer to use my desktop workstations at home and at work for my day to day stuff. Having the larger screens and multiple monitors allows me to be pretty productive. However, the iPad has now become an integral part of my business and personal day. There are days that I spend more time on it than on my workstation. Sign of things to come? Not sure, but now when my Clients ask about using the iPad in their businesses I have plenty to say.
How about you? Have you found the iPad to be a useful business tool? In what ways?
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