www.alliancetechnologies.net

 

To find out, I went to talk to Christian Renaud, the CEO of Palisade Systems – he’s been using the iPad as a business device since it launched on April 3rd.

 

“Primarily I use it as a business information portal,” he said. “I monitor on demand business information on the iPad. I use it for business documents in meetings, too, as well as light note taking.”

 

He mentioned that the device isn’t a laptop – primarily it’s for information consumption, not information generation, but there are several applications that make information input, via the finger or a stylus, easy.

 

“I tend to make more data-driven decisions since I started using the iPad,” he said, “since all my business information is readily available at all times. I carry it with me wherever I go.”

 

He said it took him a few hours of working with the device to “get it”, but once it clicked he’s been using it ever since. “Instead of filling a small niche between my phone and my laptop, it’s pushed those devices out to the fringe and found its own place.”

 

The other thing I noticed, as we talked and passed the iPad back and forth, was that the device felt much more social than a phone or laptop. Phones and laptop tend to be single-user devices – their form-factors lend themselves to that use, but the iPad begs to be handed back and forth. It’s more a replacement for a pen and paper than a phone or a laptop. And in that niche, it excels.

 

Other noteworthy features: the iPad can run a presentation if hooked up to another screen through the Keynote application, watch video, play music, and run iPhone applications.

 

There are still problems with the device, of course – proprietary lock-in to Apple’s application store, lack of any real user customization, the hefty price tag – but these are all issues that will probably be alleviated over the course of this year, as more slate and tablet competitors enter the market. The real takeaway here is that the tablet form-factor, with the right software, can fulfill a viable business need as an on demand information portal and note-taking device. 

 

The iPad might not be for everyone, but for people on the move who need the constant information access the iPad offers, it’s a great fit between a smart phone and a laptop.