With the announcement of the release of the iPad 2 from Apple, we wanted to look back at the past year of iPad influence to see how tablet computing is changing lives, and the publishing, marketing, travel, health care, and education industries.
The WordCast Team talked about how the iPad is influencing web design on the WordCast Podcast recently, impacting the web design and developing industry and revitalizing it.
While it’s unlikely that touch screen keyboards on tablets will replace our hardware keyboards for publishing blogs and websites anytime soon, the “app mentality” has brought about a fundamental shift in how blogs and other digital content are consumed, and web developers need to be ready now.
Though all major tablets and smartphones include basic functioning web browsers, the majority of high profile web publications are providing their content to users in custom developed applications. While mobile internet access has existed for years, only recently have advanced mobile computing platforms like tablets and smartphones allowed for sensible and easy consumption of content from absolutely anywhere. Enthusiasts rave about how much they prefer flipping through blogs and newspapers on their iPad rather than firing up a computer.
As web publishers, are we coming full circle from the “hold it in your hands” and “turn the page” golden age of print? Will designers soon be thinking about finger swipes above mouse clicks? And as content continues to be relegated to specific applications, will the “surfing” style consumption of content, jumping from big sites to smaller, become a thing of the past?
How Will Tablets Change Blogging and Web Publishing?
How is the iPad and mobile technology influencing other industries? Here are some of our findings.
Health Care Industry
How the iPad is Changing Mobile Health Care – Enterprise Mobile Today
The iPad is, in some ways, a dream solution for busy doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals. It is lightweight, easy to carry, and can be used for making notes, accessing records, searching medical references, viewing medical images, and illustrating all kinds of things to patients (injuries, progressions of illnesses, surgical procedures, and even physical therapy regimes). It offers access in the office, at a hospital, at home, or anyplace else. Perhaps more importantly, its user interface is intuitive and has very little learning curve. As one doctor put it to me “within thirty seconds, you know how to use it.”
Trade Show and Marketing/Sales Industry
3 Ways the Apple iPad is Changing the Face of Tradeshows – AV Event Solutions:
The iPad can be loaded with video demonstrations of the product or service the exhibitor is offering and the sales personnel can utilize the portability and touchscreen of the iPad to go out to the masses and customize the presentation to prospect’s needs. At a point of interest, with one touch and a few clicks, the booth sales rep can email marketing materials, presentations, quotes, or contact information right to the prospect and they will have the information upon returning to the office.
Is Apple's iPad Changing CRM and Business Intelligence? — ecrmguide.com
Tim Hickernell, lead analyst for Info-Tech Research Group, sees businesses beginning to use the iPad in sales, CRM, business intelligence (BI) and marketing. In the retail segment, for instance, it allows the sales representative to accomplish order taking and inventory checks, and also gives them access to the product catalog in a rich media format. In field sales, iPads add sizzle to product demonstrations.
“Product demos incorporating 3D benefit the most from the iPad, such as medical and pharmaceutical demos in the field by sales reps,” said Hickernell. “On the CRM side, field service can log service calls, or iPads can be deployed as self-service kiosks for a variety of CRM needs.”
iPads seem to be gaining ground in high-value customer segments too. High wealth accounts such as major investors or buyers of expensive real estate can be given an iPad as a sales promotion, preloaded with an appropriate portfolio of investment opportunities and historical performance or even pre-load a high value real estate portfolio for prospective buyers, along with information about the destination city the prospect is moving to, said Hickernell.
Mind Mapping and Productivity
Mind mapping on the iPad: A game changer – Mind Mapping Software Blog
…the iPad should be a perfect platform for capturing your ideas, and then sharing them with the world.
I can foresee the iPad becoming a business tool, used to capture notes and mind maps in meetings, or to go off by yourself to a quiet spot to do some brainstorming. This exciting new device comes with a built-in microphone, which means you could capture audio notes and attach them to your mind maps (a native capability in the paid version of XMind).
The iPad may even lead us in some new directions, eventually enabling you to integrate photos you’ve shot on the iPad into your mind maps (there is no camera in the first version of the iPad, but hey – I can dream, can’t I?!). I can envision a photo of a whiteboard and capturing your meeting notes as part of a map, for example. The iPad should be a perfect platform for capturing your ideas, and then sharing them with the world.
Education
The Year of the Tablet in Education – The Xplanation
[Tablet computers] are about convergence — E-readers will not take hold in education because tablets will negate their usefulness and appeal. An e-reader is a single-use machine and a fairly limited one at that. The tablet, on the other hand, will support e-textbooks — Web-based and offline — color, Web productivity, and a whole host of other media, content creation, and communication options. The tablet can serve many functions and the e-reader only one. We want convergence when it makes sense and the convergence offered by tablet devices will appeal to educational users.
Measuring the iPad's Potential for Education — THE Journal
Making the iPad different–and perhaps more useful within the educational field–from other handheld devices, said Purdy, is the fact that it has its own software development kit. “The iPad runs on the core iPhone operating system, but it is truly a new platform with more screen real estate and more memory and storage space,” Purdy explained. “This will allow a whole new class of gaming and educational apps to come to market.”
Textbooks, for example, may look and feel very different in a just a few years, thanks in part to the introduction of the iPad. “We’ll no longer be thinking in terms of static publications and will instead be using dynamic content with animation, movies, video, and other multimedia built into it,” Purdy predicted. “We’ll go from trying to feed PDF textbooks into portable devices to building interactive, dynamic applications that students can carry around with them.”
Publishing Industry
Is Mobile Affecting When We Read? – Read It Later Blog
People are busy. It’s unrealistic that we are going to consume all of this content the exact moment we discover it. So we leave dozens of tabs open, we email ourselves links, or we use Read It Later to hold on to the content until we are ready to consume it.
…the newspaper’s portability allowed us to read in the places we found comfortable. More importantly, it let us read the day’s content on our own schedule. The iPad is doing the same.
Aside from a quick lunch hour at their desk, iPad owners are no longer doing the majority of their reading on their computers. They are saving it for their personal prime time, when they can relax comfortably, iPad in hand and burn through the content they found during the day. When a reader is given a choice about how to consume their content, a major shift in behavior occurs. They no longer consume the majority of their content during the day, on their computer. Instead they shift that content to prime time and onto a device better suited for consumption.
Initially, it appears that the devices users prefer for reading are mobile devices, most notably the iPad. It’s the iPad leading the jailbreak from consuming content in our desk chairs. As better mobile experiences become more accessible to more readers, this movement will continue to grow. Readers want to consume content in a comfortable place, on their own time and mobile devices are making it possible for readers to take control once more.
How the iPad Can Change Emergency Medicine – EP Monthly
The iPad offers a solution. Maybe it won’t happen with this specific iPad release. Maybe it won’t happen this year or next. But I expect emergency physicians will someday be able to wander through their department, moving patient to patient, with a tablet like the iPad tucked under their arms. During encounters, we’ll use iPads to tap on elements of the history or exam in, and enter orders – all very quickly at the bedside. These tablets will help us go over images and lab results with patients, and let us review diagnoses and instructions.
In short, I think the iPad can liberate doctors from the desk-based tyranny of ED information systems and the shortcomings of the paper chart.
iPad May Replace Computers and Textbooks In Schools, Expert Predicts – Cult of Mac
The iPad is going to be very big in schools, predicts Professor Mark Warschauer, one of the world’s leading experts in technology and learning. In an exclusive interview, Prof. Warschauer predicted that schools may soon start buying iPads in big numbers to replace not just desktops and laptops, but also textbooks and other reading materials.
“Until a couple of years ago, the majority of book reading — and a lot of magazine and newspaper reading — was done in print,” he said in a phone interview. “I think we’re going to see that change now.” Warschauer, a professor in the Department of Education at the University of California, Irvine, is acknowledged as one of the leading academics studying technology’s effect on education. Recently he’s been studying the effects of 1-to-1 laptop programs in education, like Maine’s ambitious Learning Technology Initiative that gave iBooks and MacBooks to all middle-school students. He said reading is likely to go digital very fast, and that many people will soon have two computing devices: a computer or laptop for writing, and a tablet for reading.
Publishing, Advertising, and Media Industries
iPads Changing Way News is Delivered – iPad News Daily
A survey by the University of Missouri suggests the iPad is opening new avenues for news outlets that could eventually have a major negative impact on print newspaper subscriptions.
…iPad users are predominantly well-educated, affluent men between the ages of 35 and 64 who tend to be early adopters, according to the study. They also tend to be very satisfied by the time spent on their iPads, with 62 percent spending more than an hour during a typical day on the device, and 90 percent spending at least 30 minutes reading news on the iPad. In addition, nearly 31 percent of iPad users surveyed said they wouldn’t subscribe to a print newspaper and 10 percent are expecting to cancel their print subscriptions, opting instead to read digital versions on the iPad.
While the numbers are very impressive, they reflect a very narrow and niche market. The reason iPad owners in general tend to be affluent can likely be attributed to the relatively high costs of a device that isn’t really considered a PC, and isn’t a traditional mobile device used for communications. The iPad is often thought of as a “tweener” device, and more of a luxury.
Tablet Computers: Changing The Way Media Feels – NPR Intern Edition
“I think we are about to enter a golden age of advertising. I think we will see much better advertising, a renaissance,” said McCambley. He’s convinced that Smartphones such as the iPhone and the Android and tablets like the iPad are so capable, they can deliver location aware advertising in any medium.
…“The ad should be almost as good as the content, or even better than the content. It should be useful to the consumer,” McCambley said. Within the iPad ad, the consumer could also find the closest location to buy the lens, do a price comparison, and read consumer reviews.
Rick Edmonds, a business media expert thinks that the newness of the tablet technology allows for a sense of exploration and excitement, but doesn’t entirely see how advertising could be more interesting than the content of a magazine like Sports Illustrated. Mixing content with advertising “has already proven a danger with some websites…the boundaries tend to be a lot looser which allows for confusion,” Edmonds said.
But McCambley remains optimistic about the future of tablets and the advertising’s role in the mix. “You’ll be able to immense yourself in your passions better than ever. Amazing content is soon to come.”
Colleges Dream of Paperless, iPad-centric – Gadget Lab | Wired.com
Bill Rankin, a professor of medieval studies at Abilene Christian, called the iPhone program the “TiVoing of education,” because the iPhone was giving students the information they need, when they want it and wherever they want it. After the success of the pilot program, the iPhone has now become a regular part of Abilene Christian’s course structure.
Rankin views the iPad as the potential sequel to Abilene Christian’s iPhone program. The university has ordered 50 iPads to kick off an iPad pilot program, which Rankin believes will focus on the future of publishing.
“This is really about people re-imagining what books look like — re-imagining something that hasn’t really been re-imagined in about 550 years,” Rankin said. “We want the students to start thinking about, what’s the best way to present information on the iPad?” said Kenneth Pybus, an assistant professor of journalism and mass communication, who serves as adviser for The Optimist. “We’re challenging them to design features that would take full advantage of photos and texts and HTML5. There’s an academic component to that — forcing students to think differently about how information is distributed and presented to readers.”
How Tablets are Changing Comic Book Reading – Ritchie's Room
After exploring the wide variety of apps in the iTunes/App Store ecosystem, the iPad had reignited my interest in the good old comic book. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this is the future of comics, for a variety of reasons.
…The vivid experience I have when reading is what makes me very excited to re-engage with the comic book in the electronic format. It’s an amazing, dynamic environment that enhances the comic rather than takes away from it. This is because software developers have created techniques for artists to present their work in new and exciting ways.
Reading a comic in this fashion is like savouring and consuming a delicious meal, moving from dish to dish, especially if you’re a fan of the artist or writer. And you are in control of the reading pace, so it’s much more intimate and subjective than watching a cartoon or animated feature. It actually extends the reading time of a comic for me, due to the slower admiring of each panel’s finer points.
Travel and Communication
Tablets, Changing Travel Habits – GHacks
The tablets is a natural device for travel with its high entertainment focus on movies, songs, books, always on connectivity (no need to wait for the computer to boot), and light portable design. The tablet competition is already heating up, and new features like dual cameras and the ability to have video conferences on the go will ensure better response from the traveling public. Tablets provide seamless connectivity, and with large, touch-screen displays, they are a boon to use, even for the elderly. The main travel groups that use the tablet are: leisure travelers and business travelers. Though the business travel class always prefers laptops, which cater to their extensive needs, the tablet trend is catching up.
Work/Life: E-Readers and Tablets Hit the Road – Fast Company
Where tablets are concerned, the iPad’s interface is much improved. While it won’t offer the optimum e-reader features, Apple doesn’t need to sell me on the notion that the iPad will open windows for the business traveler. For example, if you’re on the road for weeks at a time, the more tasks you won’t be able to put off till you get back to the office. With an iPad you’ll actually be able to do more of those tasks. I see an iPad as bringing a part of your offices and a part of your home with you. In fact, in more ways than a laptop it will become your home away from home. This will be especially true for travelers who normally take only a handheld with them.
…Ironically, the iPad is just great except for those who work in companies that do not use Web-based corporate tools. Consequently, any applications that cannot be accessed solely over the Internet, cannot be accessed on the iPad. Many applications at my company run off our network, which uses a VPN login and software loaded on our computer. Hence there is no way my laptop could be replaced by the iPad anytime soon.
Disability and Accessibility: Freedom
One of the most powerful impacts the iPad and tablets have had is in the area of disability. As one of the most popular bloggers and social web experts, Glenda Watson-Hyatt was faced with the prospect of giving an award-winning speech. Her challenge? With her speech limited by her cerebral palsy, her options for accepting the award were also limited.
Then brilliance struck: what if I used my text-to-speech TextAloud on my computer to create the audio file and then email it as an attachment to myself on my iPad? My experiment passed the test in the lab. Would it work flawlessly live?
…then the winner’s name announced: Glenda Watson Hyatt of Soaring Eagle Communications.
I drove up in front of the stage, with my iPad on my lap. I was presented with my crystal brick award. Official photographs were taken. Then the Master of Ceremonies knelt beside me, holding a microphone next to my iPad. I tapped play and Kate spoke my acceptance speech perfectly!
Except…There was a technical difficulty with the microphone…it was not on! My brief speech was not heard. My heart sank, but I kept smiling. Once Kate had finished, the emcee kindly took my iPad up to the podium mic. Having never used an iPad before, he was able to figure out to tap play. My words were then heard.
Another door had opened for me in that moment: I had just given my first speech on my iPad!
For almost a year, Glenda has been testing and researching the iPad as an Assisted and Augmentative Communication device. She’s tested the iPad as a communication tool and to conduct an interview.
TheNextWeb contributor, Tris Hussey shared his enthusiasm for Glenda’s efforts with the iPad.
I remember my Dad showing me some of the first devices for quadriplegics help them use computers and communicate (on Apple IIs I might add), and I know if my Dad were alive now he’d be making sure his patients all had iPads. The world of computers has come a long, long way and I’m sure Glenda is going to be out there leading the charge.
Glenda and others will be inspired by this example of the life changing iPad from John Tesh:
Apple’s iPad tablet is for more than reading books and watching videos. According to the Wall Street Journal, the iPad is offering a surprising new way for special needs kids to communicate. Take two-year old Caley Gray. She’s been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and before she got an iPad, she couldn’t answer simple “yes” or “no” questions. Now, all she has to do is touch pictures on the tablet’s screen, and special software speaks the words for her…The best part of all? Caley Gray’s mother puts it this way: She says she no longer has to fight to convince people that her daughter’s smart, even though she has cerebral palsy, because once they see her using an iPad, they know it.
