Saturday, April 23, 2011

Apple's iPad Sales....Really??

On Wednesday, April 20, 2011, Apple released earnings for the 2nd Quarter of FY 2011. As of this release, the iPad has been on sale for a full year. The sales results have been stunning, to say the least. But how stunning? In a presentation I prepared for an upcoming conference (IMA Meonske Professional Development Conference), I try to put this in perspective.

The chart below shows Apple's sales by product category over the last 11 quarters. Note that iPad sales don't appear until the 3rd quarter of last year.

Taking a closer look at just iPod, iPhone, and iPad sales over the same period, it becomes even more obvious that Apple has not only reinvented markets (cellphone IS dominated by the iPhone), but created market a market where one did not exist a mere 12 months ago.

So how big is $12.4 billion? I worked at Jo-Ann Stores, a national fabric and craft retailer, for over seven years. JAS revenues ranged from $1.5 to $1.85 billion annually during those seven years. The TOTAL revenues for that period of time range were less than $12.4 billion. That is my personal frame to try and grasp the magnitude of what Apple has accomplished with the iPad.

Perform a similar exercise using data relevant in your world. That Really Is Nuts!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Managing Pictures Remotely on the iPad

Yesterday, I received an email from my nephew, Brett, while he was on his way back from a vacation in Key West, Florida. He traveled with a few college friends and decided prior to the trip that he would only take an iPad, his iPhone and a camera; the goal was to manage the entire photo taking and management process with those devices. I have provided below most of his email, which highlights just how easy certain tasks have become in the new Apple environment.

Just wanted to share my vacation photo experience with the iPad, iPhone and accessories.

For the vacation, our group had:
4 iPhones
1 iPad
1 panasonic lumix point and shoot camera

The sd card reader for iPad was awesome. At the end of every day I would transfer all of the pictures I had taken that day onto the iPad. The import could figure out which pictures had not been imported so I didn't delete any pictures off the camera card during the entire trip. It would create a separate event for each day so it was easy to keep track of what pictures were where. The only thing I wish it would add is the GPS location - similar to how the iPhone does.

The USB reader was great for collecting photos from everyone's iPhones. I'm guessing we took around 100 pictures and 10 videos with the iPhone. The videos came out really well since the iPhone records hd video. GPS info was imported with each video and picture. Thanks to HDR most of the pictures looked great, especially if taken outside.

The ability to sit in the lobby before leaving for the airport and look at every picture from the trip was awesome. It was so seamless and easy that it was something to do during free time instead of a planned event.

Depending on the volume of pictures you take, I'm not sure this would be the best option for every vacation...but it is awesome to sit around each night with the capability to review that day's pictures.

It's amazing how fast a picture becomes a memory.

It truly is amazing the opportunities that open up simply by applying a little thought to the tools at your disposal! I am hearing more and more stories similar to this. Fascinating, to say the least! Thanks for the email Brett, and for allowing me to share your thoughts.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Using Dropbox With The iPad iWorks Suite

The more I have worked with iWorks in the iPad, and in particular, KeyNote, I have wished for an easy way to transfer files from or to the application on the iPad. Apple provides a number of methods to share the content, using various formats, but I have found them cumbersome or limited in application (for instance, sending a 15 meg KeyNote file through email does not always work). There is no default "integration" with popular file synchronization services, such as Dropbox.

One option provided is to "Copy to WebDAV", which I did not understand and have only explored recently. This option allows you to enable WebDAV capability on your Dropbox account and then import/export files right to your Dropbox account. A service called "DropDAV" makes this possible. It is a free service, as long as it is synced to a free version of Dropbox (otherwise you pay a fee similar to Dropbox storage plans).

Setting this up is a simple two step process – set up a DropDAV account (https://dropdav.com) and, then, sign in to WebDAV through the iWorks application. Unfortunately, this must be completed for each of the iWork apps that you want to use with Dropbox.

Click here for a link to a techinch article explaining this entire process. If you use iWorks – especially Keynote, the file sizes can get fairly large rather quickly. It is definitely worth the effort to work through this process!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Web Browsing – Access All Your Bookmarks on the iPad

In one of my March posts, I discussed alternatives to the Safari web browser on the iPad. One additional question that I get quite often is how to access all of your desktop computer bookmarks right from the iPad. There are various ways to do this, but I will look at two – one involving a somewhat cumbersome syncing process, and the other through a simple app (although the service does have a subscription fee).

The first approach is to use a bookmark syncing service (Xmarks is my favorite and the one reviewed here) to sync your browser bookmarks (from Google Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer) to the Apple Safari browser. You then can synchronize those bookmarks with your iPad through the iTunes synchronization process. Here is a link to a blog post explaining the process.

The second approach, and my preferred method, is to simply install the Xmarks app on the iPad. You are required to have an Xmarks account, which comes in free and premium versions. To use Xmarks on the iPad, you are required to have a premium account (currently $12 annual subscription fee). The Xmarks app synchronizes your desktop browser bookmarks with your iPad, providing easy access to any bookmark you have set up previously. The app operates its own mini-browser, but in my experience, it works seamlessly with most websites. The app provides easy search capabilities and quick access to all bookmarks.

I highly recommend Xmarks as a bookmark synchronization tool, regardless of whether you use it on the iPad or not. All bookmarks are synchronized across your all your computers, which results in a similar experience regardless of which machine (or browser) that is used.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

iPad versus Laptop; Flip The Perspective?

Bill Fench, founder of iPadCTO.com, posted two articles recently; "unstoppable agility at 12,000 feet" and "where laptops can't go, iPad likely can". 

Both of these posts hit home with me, especially after my recent experience of traveling for business with the ipad (see "Traveling for Business With The iPad" post). My experience was such that I preferred the tablet to a laptop. I also realized very quickly the things I was able to get done that would not have been possible with a laptop, but were not only possible, but pleasurable with the iPad. 

Bill does a very nice job of changing the perspective on the question everyone asks (prior to owning an iPad) - "Why is it any different than a laptop?". Definitely worth taking a few minutes to read!  

Here are the links:

http://ipadcto.com/2011/03/30/ipad-agility-unstoppable-effortless-design-work-at-12000ft-on-a-snowy-mountain-pass/

http://ipadcto.com/2011/04/02/where-laptops-cant-go-ipad-likely-can/

Saturday, April 2, 2011

IPad - Content Library Observations

My initial impetus to get an iPad was to create a library of my PDF documents. I have operated, essentially, in a digital environment since 2003. Thus, the ability to have easy access to ALL documents, in a fashion that would be easily searchable, is very compelling to me. That simple thought pushed me down a road that has literally branched off in hundreds of directions over the last year.

However, I have found in numerous discussions with iPad owners that this concept is less understood (the perceived value is not as high).  In a presentation that I put together, I highlighted five "documents" that I have included in my iPad document library.  Those five are reference books that I want to have immediate access to.

Here they are:

1.    Technical accounting research document regarding accounting for derivative financial instruments (620 pages).
2.    Excel 2007 Bible – reference (914 pages)
3.    Access 2007 Inside and Out – reference (1,464 pages)
4.    Apple “Final Cut Pro” User Manual (2,033 pages)
5.    Adobe Acrobat 9 Bible – reference (1,298 pages)

In total, these "documents" account for 6,329 pages of material, which consume a total storage space of 180 megabytes.  180 mg is 18% of 1 gig, and 1 gig is 1.6% of 64 gig (the largest iPad currently available).  Thus, five rather large books take up only 0.28% of the total capacity.  Assuming you had 25 times this amount of material, you would still only use up approximately 7% of the total iPad storage.

What’s the point?  You can include far more content on an iPad than you probably imagine!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Move Business Reporting to the iPad – Dashboard Development


Now that the iPad has been out for a little while (just over a year), I have recently seen a noticeable shift in the nature of discussions. The discussion is less about "why do I need this?" and more about "I have this, how can I leverage it in my business?" The iPad is an extremely simple device, friendly to use and work with, and executives are quickly realizing the advantages of accessing Anything, Anytime, Anywhere, from or with Anyone. We recently developed a dashboard reporting development process, and while it is not a perfect solution, it can move any iPad user substantially down the road.

Dashboards are an extremely useful way to highlight key data for executives so that they can easily and quickly digest important information about their business. Consider that:

  1. Dashboards can eliminate the "clutter" from typical financial reports. By supplementing (or replacing) financial tables with relevant charts/graphs, it becomes simple to see critical information and trends quickly.
  2. Dashboards enable easy report review and standardization of management information.
  3. Dashboards can be easy to distribute across multiple platforms – the iPad is an ideal interface with which to view reporting.
We have posted a presentation to Slideshare.net that provides an overview of considerations, process development steps and a sample dashboard that we created using information from Panera Bread. If done properly, a dashboard can be developed that is easy to maintain, easy to distribute to executives, and substantially improves the reporting process from where you may be today.