These are the accessories. How many people have you seen just wandering around with a tablet? Fine, Steve Jobs on stage, but besides him. Right, pretty much no one.

• A good case. Doesn’t matter if it’s simple or a hand-made leather work of fine craftsmanship, but a case is essential to carry and protect your tablet from bumps, bruises, and scratches. I suggest looking for a case that also works as a stand as well. It’s a lot easier to type and see things if you can have your tablet held up safely.
• A good bag. You will shortly realize that carrying around a laptop around is for suckers. You can do just fine with your tablet, thank you very much. Yeah, well that’s great and all, but how do you carry your tablet and all the other stuff you might need too? You know pens, notebook, flash drives, cables, chargers, that stuff. Right a good bag is essential. I have a small bag I pressed into service ( aka liberated from my wife) for my iPad and all my gear. It holds just about everything I need, though I do wish it had a little padding in the main compartment. Since the bag wasn’t designed as a tablet bag I can’t fault it for lack of computer-specific features. Now, if I were shopping for a new bag, a padded main compartment would be essential. And pockets, lots of pockets. In the interim, I have a padded netbook sleeve I use to protect my iPad from bumps and bruises
• Keyboard. Yes, I know this kinda goes against the grain here with the whole portability factor, however while I can type pretty darn well with the iPad virtual keyboard, when I want to really crank out some words (I’ve written and finished entire book chapters on my iPad) I need a “real” keyboard. My choice is the Apple Wireless Keyboard. It’s light, great key feel, takes only a couple batteries (I use the Apple rechargeable ones), and can do double (or triple) duty with my laptop or any other device that can connect to a Bluetooth keyboard (I even used it with my iPhone once). As it turns out the keyboard and iPad fit great together in my bag (even when I use the padded sleeve too).
• Cleaning cloths. You have figured out by now that tablet screens are fingerprint magnets and if you need to show something to a colleague (or client) and your tablet is covered in smears and prints from your late-night Angry Birds marathon, well, you know. Since I wear glasses I happen to keep a microfiber cloth on me (and spares in my bags) all the time, but you might not. So find one and toss it in. In addition to a dry cloth, I keep some disposable moist cleaning cloths just for glasses and screens in my bag too. Perfect for stubborn smudges or polishing it after a (gasp) splash of coffee gets on your tablet. You can find them just about anywhere, but my wife stumbled on a big package of them at our local Costco. Always handy to have around.
• A stylus. Yes, yes I know the tablet is all about touch, however sometimes a stylus is great for a quick sketch (doodling and drawing apps are great as mini whiteboards) or using a calculator. I have a couple styli, one stays in my bag and one stays at my desk. One of the early leaders in the stylus world was the Pogo Sketch and which the business end of it is great, the shirt clip was plastic and quickly broke off. My stylus for my bag has a metal clip and while it might not be the best fine detail stylus, it is heavy duty enough to bounce around in my bag.

These, I think, are the essentials for any tablet owner. As you use your tablet I’m sure you’ll start looking at the other cool things for it. Over the time I’ve had my iPad I’ve picked up the camera connector kit (which also gives my a usable USB port for microphones and other USB devices) and the dock to VGA cable so I can give presentations straight from my iPad (leaving my laptop at home!). Once you start using your tablet, you’ll certainly find that you will be using it more and more.

Photo from HighTechDad on Flickr

Tris_Hussey

It’s all about the apps. I’ve had an iPad for over a year now and my laptop doesn’t leave my desk very often. Heck, most of the time when I do lug it out I realize that I could have managed just fine with my iPad. My back and shoulders would really appreciate if I would remember that first.

How has my iPad become a powerful business tool? An arsenal of great apps. Since you don’t really want to know all about my 100+ apps, here are my top 5 apps for business people that you should have on your iPad to make it a power business tool:

• Quickoffice Pro HD $15. While iWork for iOS (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers) is a great suite for the iPad, each app is $10 (that’s $30 for the whole package) and QuickOffice Pro HD is just $15 and has much, much better compatibility with MS Office and it’s much easier to get files in and out of QuickOffice with support for MobileMe (which will become iCloud), Dropbox, SugarSync, Huddle, Google Docs, and other online tools (as well as WebDAV and local transfer). You might not think you can work on documents on your iPad, but until you’ve tried it, you won’t know how awesome it is to be able to just make a quick revision and take care of it while sipping a coffee in your favorite place. Working when and where you want rocks.
• Dropbox Free. Having files on hand and being able to send files from your iPad to colleagues is one of the essential parts of using a tablet for business. First step is getting a free Dropbox account. You get 2GB of free storage there and the more people you refer to Dropbox the more extra space you can get for free on top of the 2GB (up to 16GB free). Dropbox syncs with all your computers automagically, including the ability to have shared folders with coworkers. So you get an email that the proposal has been updated in the team Dropbox folder, you review and edit it with Quickoffice, save it back, and your coffee probably isn’t even cool yet. Not too shabby.
• PDF Expert $10. Beyond reading PDF documents and manuals (you do read the manuals don’t you?), the other places PDF shines are forms and contracts. PDF Expert isn’t just a great PDF reader, you can also use it to fill out forms and sign contracts. You can even have your signature stored and have a client sign their part as well. Oh and it syncs with Dropbox. So, you revise the proposal, the client accepts, the team puts a PDF of the contract back into Dropbox, you sign it, sync it back and your coffee isn’t even half way done. We’re three for three here now.
• Kobo books Free. You don’t think an ebooks app is great for business? Well between the “must-read” business books, whitepapers, and even a good book to take your mind off things for a moment, I think you’ll find that being able to tap into a library of books whenever you need to is a pretty great thing. The Kobo app is also a pretty nifty PDF reader as well. I tend to keep forms, contracts, and the link in PDF Expert and whitepapers, manuals, and business books in Kobo. Oh and of course you can buy the latest best sellers through the Kobo bookstore so you have something to read on the plane too. So when you need that killer quote from Guy Kawasaki, you’ll have it on hand.
• Evernote Free. Evernote is the leading note taking app hands down. With versions for desktops and all the mobile devices around, you can take notes on your tablet, review them on your smartphone, then edit and share them from your desktop or laptop. All synced, all fast, and free. Yes, if you do a lot of note taking you might consider upgrading to Evernote Premium, but cross that bridge when you come to it. Taking that sketch from a meeting to reference while you’re working on the proposal in QuickOffice? Yeah you knew getting this iPad would be a great idea.

These are just five of the myriad apps for business. My list of top apps for iOS goes well beyond 5 and aren’t all business related either, however if you start with these apps, I’m pretty sure you’ll thank me for it.

You can start thanking me now in fact.

Tris_Hussey

Should I optimize my current web site to be viewed on different mobile devices?
Do I really need a mobile application to reach my audience, while getting a good ROI?

Do some homework before going into the deep end of the pool.

Come back next time for another mobile marketing tip of the day.

steve8004

- 23% of Generation X & Y consumers (18 to 44 year olds) own a smartphone compared to 17% of the overall population

- 85% of Generation Y (18 to 30 year olds) send and receive text messages

- 27% of Generation Y use mobile devices for social networking

Marketers should take advantage of this new channel to better leverage their marketing budget and improve ROI. But where should a marketing professional begin? Thankfully, mobile marketing companies are available to help businesses make the most out of this new avenue.

So to leverage the marketing dollar, businesses need to evaluate mobile marketing companies. As part of the evaluation the enterprise should look at the following items:

- Experience level. To be fair, mobile marketing hasn’t even been around that long – a few years at the most. But the types of experience that the company brings to the table can go a long way. A Fortune 500 company does not want someone who has only built an app for one deli shop in Manhattan, for example.

- Innovation. As with any marketing initiative, mobile marketing requires a great deal of creativity. The company should demonstrate at least three different approaches to a marketing plan. Would we only use SMS/text messages? Is there an interactive game or promotion? Will there be a link to a company consumer website?

- Platforms. While Android owns the market at this time, Apple, Blackberry, Microsoft and others are out there. Therefore the mobile marketing app should be available on multiple platforms. While the app does not need to run on ALL platforms, it should at least cover the top three.

steve8004

Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging is used by billions of people worldwide. It would be an understatement on my part to say that SMS may be used also by a mobile marketing agency to suggest ways to advertise.

In one early case of successful SMS marketing by Boomtext, for example, a pizza shop placed a sign next to its cash register inviting customers to text the word “hungry” to the shop for a chance to win a free pizza. Now text marketing for that shop has grown into a major SMS communication channel between the pizza sellers and their many customers, who gladly receive weekly updates on specials (Venezia’s Pizzeria case study, 2008 to present).

The growing mobile marketing agency, Hipcricket, increased its business ten times over, in the space of one year alone. By the end of that year, 2010, it divulged that its brand clients preferred to use SMS for their ads, instead of app banners, more than half the time (MobileMarketingWatch, November 1, 2010). This indication points in the direction of what works, rather than what used to work. While I know SMS has not taken over mobile marketing by any means, there are consumer demographics indicating that in a certain young age group, texting surely is “in” and won’t go out soon. Also, within that group is a distinct reliance upon, and true appreciation of, local advertising showing the way to nearby restaurants and stores needed urgently by mobile users moving about in their typical daily activities.

steve8004

LBS Potential
The feeling within the average mobile marketing agency was that most brands were unenthusiastic about location-based advertising. This puzzled me because many agencies and small business clients felt consumer location was mobile marketing’s strong suit.

One recent example of good LBS advertising was the success of McDonald’s ads in Finland last year. Consumers in range of a McDonald’s viewed the ads while researching a mapping app.

Map agencies, which of course specialize in location themselves, seem fond of location-based ads perhaps for obvious reasons. In Australia too, a major mapping business has started placing LBS ads on its maps for users tracked to specific geographical locations near clients’ stores.

Therefore, why did the survey say most brands were cool on the idea of LBS?

Some analysts have reminded me that LBS is a refinement of the general idea of mobile marketing. It may be that while big business is starting to sway in the direction of mobile advertising in reaction to the clear trend in favor of accessing the Internet on the go, they still have not bought into the idea that a consumer’s known location can be a very crucial fact influencing successful results from advertisements.

It seems likely that greater commitment on the part of big brands to mobile advertising will be forthcoming when a mobile marketing agency can pinpoint not only the geographical location of a consumer, but other relevant characteristics of all mobile users.

The Apple Dilemma
The unenthusiastic reception that brands gave iAD seemed harsh to me, when Apple specifically wooed them to use iAD as Apple’s very own mobile marketing agency. However, even more whimsical was the survey’s indicating that big brands that did favor mobile advertising overwhelmingly preferred iPhone ads (but apparently through a different mobile marketing agency).

I think the iAD disappointment might be explained by the fact that a seasoned mobile marketing agency naturally would instill more confidence than an off-shoot of a great computer and mobile device manufacturer that suddenly, although courageously, decided to try its hand at being its own ad agency.

A Bright Future
The survey indicated a tremendous leap forward for mobile marketing. The fact that brands moved slowly was not too discouraging for me considering the evidence that the most convincing proof, mobile online usage itself, is very clear.

steve8004

Odds are that many mobile marketing companies will be using their best wisdom to find ways to utilize a new combination of Vringo and m-Wise. The acquisition of m-Wise’s advanced technologies in marketing and entertainment, by Vringo, already famous for making mobile usage ultra-personalized, should capture the imagination of mobile marketing companies looking for new possibilities in advertising. I’m sure that the hundreds of applications, used by m-Wise on scores of mobile networks all around the globe, will offer a broad platform for diverse mobile marketing opportunities.

The Stimulation of New Technology
In reading about this next item on Mobile Marketer, I couldn’t help thinking that, for mobile users, the view just got better for those lovers of images of reality, which have been augmented technologically by sound or graphics. Augmented reality, as an option for mobile marketing companies, will be enhanced by the arrival of Apple’s new iPad 2, having both front-facing and rear-facing cameras. In the space of just one year, from 2009 to 2010, smart phones capable of projecting augmented reality presentations increased more than tenfold (Juniper Research, February 2, 2011). This increase has been surpassed exponentially by the number of mobile advertisements made possible by this blossoming technology. Mobile marketing companies adventuresome enough to try this new media for advertising will have great opportunities once iPad 2 comes onto the market.

Healthy Signs for Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing companies should take note that one advertiser I know, Buick, has taken over the entire advertising space on Verizon’s iPhones to promote a scholarship program funded by General Motors. The exclusive advertising campaign on the iPhone will last for 5 weeks to make college scholarship applicants aware of the program.

I saw on Mobile Marketing Watch the news that Facebook will start offering online, mobile movie rentals. Beginning with Warner Brothers films, Facebook, accessed by hundreds of millions of people, will make films available to mobile users for a 48-hour period, at a cost of about $3 per film.

Proudly, one of the largest mobile marketing companies, Millennial Media, has become a premium member of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). Premium membership status is shared with such notables as Microsoft and Google. Millennial Media will take a leading role in developing MMA’s Mobile Marketing Guide, which will be a comprehensive work of global importance benefiting both you and me.

steve8004