The second wave

The days of publishing an app, to make bathroom related noises or to add a few pounds to photos of your friends, being a license to print money are fading fast. The app gold rush is ending and we are moving into a second wave of apps. With well over half a million apps in the apple app store alone, many of which have never seen the light of an iPhone home screen, this new wave of apps has to have real business objectives and offer and actual return on your investment. As a result, you need to be sure about what you are trying to achieve through the publication of your app.

This may sound like an obvious point. Many would be app publishers have an idea that their new app will be downloaded for a fee and therefore make them lots of money or that their new app will carry advertising and therefore make them lots of money. This is not enough. This is not a business plan. Such an approach is more akin to buying a lottery ticket than having an actual business plan. Some apps will still succeed with this approach. However, these either have a large marketing budget behind them or have been very lucky, or both. Publishers must now consider where their app fits into the broader online strategy of their organisation. What role does it fulfil along side the website, email marketing, text marketing, pay per click, etc.? What is its purpose; what are you trying to achieve?

Remember, it’s possible that you may not need an app at all. Apps are at their best when they do one or two things. They are supposed to allow the users to achieve something. If you are just displaying content then this is most often best served up on your website (mobile optimised of course).

Business objectives

Once you have decided that an app is the correct solution for you it is time to define some business objectives. These might be things like; attract new customers, increase online customer engagement, reduce the number of support calls that you have to deal with, sell more products, improve employee efficiency, etc. These business objectives are your justification for the app project. However, there is no point in having objectives if you do not know if they have been achieved. It is therefore important to turn these objectives into something that can be measured. We call these measurable goals.

Measurable goals

In most cases defining measurable goals is simply an exercise in adding some numbers to your business objectives. i.e. reduce the number of support calls becomes reduce the number of support calls by 25%. Obviously you can’t just pull these numbers out of the air. Some considerable research needs to go into this exercise. Once you have a firm idea of what numbers you need to achieve you are then in a position to decide if you can justify the £30k+ development cost of your app and you will be able to see if a return on investment is actually feasible.

Return on investment

Armed with your business objectives and your measurable goals you will be able set a timeline for your return on investment to be achieved. This information will give you some clear criteria as well as a focus for judging your success. Make sure that you put mechanisms in place to enable you to measure the things that you need. This might be analytics packages such as Google Analytics or it could be a  specific phone number to call which is only advertised within the app or discount codes that are only made available through the app. If your app is for enterprise / internal use then measure the time that employees spend on tasks and having the means in place to measure subtle things such as employee satisfaction or frustration levels are very important. Measurable goals are only useful if you have the means by which to measure them. This requires some thought.

Need some help?

If you need some help in planning and implementing this important phase of your project then feel free to get in touch and I will be happy to help.

In the next post in this series we will look at how you understand your audience and the impact that this has on your app project.

The most frustrating thing about this entire debate is that the majority of opinions you will hear are born out of fear and protectionism on both sides of the fence. People may talk about “the best user experience” or “open web” or “cost of development” but all of these arguments are way more complex than they seem. The real reason people are defending their positions is because they don’t want their existing skills, customer base, business model or previous investments to be rendered obsolete.

Open vs Closed

There is plenty of noise as to whether the future of the web should remain open (read: content can be accessed by anyone from anywhere and indexed by standard search engines). Facebook want it ‘kind of open’. They do confusing things like push for wide adoption of HTML as the app platform while at the same time creating a walled off, closed web of their own.

Mobile operators such as Apple, Google and Microsoft allow the creation of apps that are increasingly seen as the way people access content; lots of little walled gardens are popping up in the form of app stores.

What the zealots on both sides of the fence need to remember is that normal people just don’t care! They will browse the web. They will use apps and app stores. They will do what they want, when they want on the device they want. Everyone needs to recognise that there is a chance, just a chance, that one size really doesn’t fit all!

Open vs Closed? We’ve got both and we always will have.

The Web is Evolving

It’s worth clarifying some terms. The Web. What is it? Many people will think that the web is about content. If you are a web developer first and foremost you will likely see this as its major function. Most big websites today are backed by content management systems (a fancy word for a database) because the web is mainly about content. Right?

If you are a well rounded developer you will know that the web is about much more than content. Its about a slew of technologies that come together to create a coherent, standards based ecosystem for developing distributed and accessible sites and applications.

Apps and The Web

As a developer of native apps the web is important for hosting back end services and databases, providing middle tier communication layers (or API’s) and, quite often, for content. The web is the glue that makes it all work, but it is not the primary mechanism through which the content is consumed; the content is made available through the app, not through the browser.

As a developer of mobile websites, the browser is still the mechanism through which that content is consumed. The site can be found using the browser on the mobile device. You can normally bookmark the site to your phone’s home screen as well so that it will appear alongside all of the standard apps. Because modern websites are full blown applications in an of themselves, some people think this is the way everything will eventually end up. The web (actually just the browser) remains the single platform through which all content is consumed.

There is a third category of mobile thing. This is the hybrid app. For all intents and purposes it looks, at first glance, like a native app. You can’t access it via the browser; you most likely download it from an app store. The difference here is that the app actually has more in common with a mobile website but it has been wrapped in a native skin. Launch the app however and you may or may not notice that it doesn’t look or behave quite like most of the stock applications on your device. It might feel a bit slower. That’s because what you are seeing is essentially a big web browser embedded into a native view. This is not necessarily a bad approach but it is not necessarily the best one either.

Cost and Reach Matter

Here is the thing.

Many web developers will push mobile optimised websites, and responsive design. Some other web developers will push hybrid apps because they can leverage their existing skill set and get the app on lots of platforms with a nearly identical code base.

Many native app developers will push apps instead of mobile optimised sites. Even more will push a native solution as the only solution and tell you that hybrid apps are not worth doing.

The truth of the matter is that what many clients need is someone to tell them what they need! This advice should be given based on their brief and their available budget. While I personally believe that a native app is nearly always better than a hybrid app, in terms of the user experience, it may not be an option given the requirements and/or the budget…and it may not even be necessary!

Native vs Web: Some Practical Advice

So to conclude, I think it is fair to say there are a number of different options, technologies and choices to weigh up when you are looking at your mobile strategy.

Your strategy is what you should be looking at and what should drive your development choices. A good mobile developer should be able to help you put together the right package for you, not drag you down a path that is simply the right one for them. Here are a few things to consider along the way:

• Consider if you need an app at all, or just need to make your existing website work better on mobile devices.

• If you do need an app, think carefully about the platforms you need to release it on. It is nearly always better to develop for a single platform first.

• If you absolutely must have an app on multiple platforms right away, then in 80% of the cases you are going to be looking at a hybrid app…unless you have a very serious development budget.

• If you are looking at a hybrid app, consider the features you need carefully. You might not get access to all the features you could expect from a native app.

• Consider if you need a mobile optimised website at the same time. You may be able to reuse some (or even most) of the development effort, depending upon complexity.

• Native apps are faster and they can offer a very slick user experience. They should take advantage of the specific platforms they are developed for. They should ‘fit in’. Hybrid apps normally, although not always, look the same on every platform.

• Even if you are developing a native app, consider what content can be dynamic. It may make sense to serve up HTML for some aspects of your UI.

• Remember that both native apps and hybrid apps may have to go through an approval process. Mobile websites do not.

• Be aware of the additional testing and submission time that native apps will require. Any content that can be hosted or can be accessed via a web service can be modified without having to resubmit the app.

Having recently done a whole bunch of work with in-app purchases that had to be systematically ripped out and binned, I thought that it might be worth highlighting some of the issues that you might face if you are considering using in-app purchases (IAP) as means to generate revenue from your app.

The Current State of Play

The current state of IAP is both confusing and limiting. On the surface it is an excellent method for generating revenue. The user is not confronted with any kind of payment wall, they don’t need to enter additional login details or credit card numbers, and the transactions all go via a provider that they already know and trust with their money. As a seller you don’t need to be concerned with payment gateways or billing systems; If you are happy to let Apple, Amazon or whoever take their 30 percent cut of your IAP revenue then it makes good sense. It also compares favourably to PayPal and other online payment providers who often take more than 30 percent, especially when handling international payments.

So, what’s the problem?

Well, there are at least two. The first is down to the way Apple tightly control what you can and can’t do through IAP. There are rules of course. You can look them up. But they are quite gray around the edges and either the reviewers have a hard time interpreting those rules or Apple favour some of the big players, letting them exploit the gray areas, while restricting lesser known developers with red tape. I actually don’t mean to sound harsh here. I appreciate the way Apple control the user experience and I can genuinely see why the majority of rules are there. However if you want to use IAP for subscription based products and services then you should definitely pay attention…

In-App Purchases and SaaS

One major problem with IAP, and particularly subscriptions, is that they are restricted to offering content that has to be ‘in the app’. This rules out every single software as a service offering. It’s a frustrating limitation meaning that you can’t use IAP to purchase subscriptions to anything other than…well mainly digital magazines and newspapers. The two, rather confusing rules in question are stated as follows:

• Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected

• Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the application will be rejected

So, the first rule says that you can’t use any other system except IAP to purchase a service. But the second rule prohibits the use of IAP to purchase a service (or physical goods)…? Ah! but this exceptionally confusing vicious circle does have a break out clause. If you look carefully at the second rule it says “used outside of the application”. Which is just as well. Otherwise every type of ‘service’, such as a digital magazine subscription, would be prohibited. Still, surely there has to be a way to make this clearer…or maybe I’m just not getting it? I certainly wish I had come across this blog post by Instapaper creator Marco Arment before we had submitted our last app.

Crippled Apps

The net result of these rules is that apps lose out. The Netflix app is broken; you have to go to the website to subscribe (or at least you had to at the time of writing). The Amazon Kindle app too is broken. Apple won’t even let these app’s link to the corresponding website. They must have a plain text message that tells the user to visit the site to download content and/or subscribe.

I can understand, although not condone, this approach. Apple offer videos via iTunes and eBooks via iBooks. They don’t want to make it easy for their competitors. But there are plenty of services that don’t compete with Apple that are forced to make use of ‘broken’ apps. As an app developer this is even more painful when you get reviews coming back from users complaining that they can’t subscribe from within the app. Just read some of the reviews for the Kindle app. The thing is, it’s not the apps fault. It’s Apple’s fault. But the users can’t be expected to understand this.

These kind of restrictions prevent e.g charities from sponsoring X,Y or Z from within an app using IAP or in our case, website hosting companies from charging for monthly hosting. The alternative is to use third party payment systems, degrading the user experience and, bizarrely, taking money away from Apple (not that they will miss it!).

Tax Headaches

The other problem I wanted to mention is tax. On this issue Apple does well; it makes sure the correct tax is charged in relation to all the markets the app appears in. However, Google does not seem to offer any assurances on this matter. I get the feeling quite a few people assume that Google deals with the tax on IAPs but this does not seem to be the case. In-fact, quite a few people either don’t release apps via Google’s store or simply make them free to avoid having to cope with the tax headache that ensues from selling your product in a global marketplace.
So all in all, IAP can be a bit of a mine field unless you are developing a game or some kind of digital publication. I would dearly love Apple to allow IAPs to be used with the software as a service model…but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Whats Your Experience?

What about you? I would love to hear other peoples experiences of IAP for more business focused type apps. Did you slip through the net? Did you have to grapple with the submission process and the confusing rules? Did you have to deal with unwanted tax issues? Did you groan at the loss of time and money spent removing large chunks of code from your app? I know I did. Why not share the pain?

Let’s be clear on what has happened. Instagram is a very popular photo sharing network. With the application of some very simple filters you can make even the most boring and poorly executed shots look interesting. Launched in October 2010 for iPhone (only last week for Android) Instagram has 30 million users uploading 5 million images a day.

Free, Free, Free

The app is free. The service is free. There is no advertising. Instagram has never generated any revenue whatsoever.

Instagram has 13 employees. Many of whom were only employed recently.

At $1 billion it values each of the 30 million users at about $28 per head

This is where I’m confused. Facebook are not buying the users. Most of those will already be Facebook account holders. Facebook are not buying the app. They could build their own for a fraction of the cost. They are not buying the people. With 13 employees that would value them at $77 million each and that really is silly. So what are they buying?

It’s all about mobile growth

Yes, Facebook has purchased a growing social networking rival. But I don’t think that this is their main concern. Instagram was never going to threaten Facebook and many of the images are shared on Facebook anyway.

What Facebook has purchased is some extra traction in the mobile world. Facebook is a global monster with over 800 million users (Q4 2011) but its days of explosive growth are behind it. Part of the reason for this is that Facebook is still seen by many as something that you engage with on a traditional desktop or laptop computer. With the sale of smart mobile devices ever increasing and their use online expected to outstrip that of their traditional cousins by 2013, Facebook need to increase engagement on mobile if it is to continue to grow.

Still, $1 billion is a large price to pay.

Tech bubble anyone?

Those nice people at Instagram have done quite well out this deal. The three venture capitalist that doubled their $50 million investment in under a week have done quite well out of it. The founder of Instagram, who picked up $450 million for two years work hasn’t done too bad either.

A bubble?

Global giants such as Facebook are not being complacent about their success. They are taking the growth of mobile very seriously indeed.  This is the message that all organisations can take from this deal. It may be over priced. It may turn out to be a stroke of genius. But it is certainly a signpost to the coming dominance of mobile internet access. Is your organisation ready?

If you want to discuss your mobile strategy then feel free to get in touch with Rob at Dootrix.

1. How much does it cost to build an app?
2. How long does it take to build an app?

My answer is, more often than not, enough to scare off the prospective new client and they are never heard of again.

Apps are not websites!

Many such clients have had experience in running or commissioning web projects. This background tends to create a false expectation of both cost and timescales of an app project. Apps are fundamentally different to websites as they are real software. They are fundamentally more complex and require a more specialist skill set to design and build them. We have reached the stage with web technology that everybody has a brother, or an uncle, or a neighbour, or somebody that they know can knock them out a website in a few weeks for a couple of hundred pounds. Granted, a professional web agency will give you a better experience and an all round better end result for considerably more time and money but the cheap and cheerful option is available. This is not really the case when it comes to apps.

1. How much does it cost to build an app?
   Between £7.5k and £50k+This is a typical custom developed app for your shop, sports club, school, college, news portal, music festival, organisation or whatever. This is the price for one platform. If you want you app to work on multiple platforms (windows, iOS, Android) then you need to multiply up the cost accordingly. The grand total will depend, obviously, on the complexity of the app and what other systems you might want to integrate with.
2. How long does it take to build my app?
   2 – 6 months1 – 3 weeks to develop the initial wireframes
   2 – 4 weeks to complete the design
   1 – 4 months to develop the beta version of your app
   1 – 2 months to test and make it bug free.

You have been warned

Be vary wary of freelancers who promise an app for a couple of thousand pounds in a few weeks. There are a large number of freelancers out there who are biting off more than they can chew and you may end up paying a lot more than you bargained for over a much longer period of time. If you get anything delivered at all.

Consider yourself warned. *smile*

Apples ridiculous numbers

During last nights show Tim Cook led us through the now customary tour of some of Apples ridiculous numbers. The one that really stood out for me was that Apple sold more iPads in Q4 2011 than any single manufacture sold PC’s. It is possible that this means that PC users of world feel the need to own lots of devices. But I would suggest that the long predicted, by some, rise of the Tablet to become a PC replacement for the masses is coming ever closer.

This is why the name of the iPad is important. Until now Tablets, like Smartphones, have been treated like consumables. You essentially need a new one every year or so. And, let’s be honest, there will always be those Apple Fan Boys who still need the latest a greatest. But regular users don’t tend to update their PC in the same way. You don’t hear of the Mac Book Pro 3, or the Mac Book Air HD, or Dell Inspiron XX. There are regular product refreshes but the drive to have this years model isn’t there. As Tablets take on this main stream mantel there is a sense that it needs to be ok to own last years model. Or, even, not know which years model you have.

Tablets are now mainstream

The suggestion now that we are going to have a product line called iPad says that Tablets are mainstream and that if you are not yet taking them seriously when developing your products and services then you are going to be alienating a vast, and growing, proportion of your users.

If you would like to discuss how Tablet devices affect the products and services that you provide then feel free to get in touch with me at Dootrix.

Well, it’s now 2012. We are approaching four years of life in said bubble. So is there any truth in it? I think that the answer is yes. And no. We are in something of bubble, but rather than it bursting what we are seeing is a maturing of peoples approach to it.

The billion doller app

Every app developer wants to invent Angry Birds. Rovio, the company behind it, are now worth over a $1 billion. It was downloaded 6.5million times on Christmas day (2011) alone. That’s a big number. But with over 500,000 different apps now in the apple app store alone (plus the windows and android apps that are out there) for every Angry Birds there are many many thousands of apps that you have never heard of and are rarely downloaded.

Building apps is an expensive business too. Yes, you can find a freelancer to build an app for a couple of thousand pounds but you are taking your chances with what you end up with. I know many freelancers who are very reputable but there are also a large number who are after a quick buck or simply bite off more than they can chew. Building apps is not the same as building websites, as many prospective clients suppose. Software development is a more specialist and more expensive skill. The simplest of apps are going to cost you upwards of £7k. If you add any degree of complexity you need to be considering a budget of upwards of £30k. My point is, you can waste a lot of money seeking the next Angry Birds and chances are you will be one of the many who are either never downloaded or downloaded and used only once.

More smartphones than people

Sounds like a bubble then. We will soon all be wise to this and give up on apps. I think not. The growth in smart device technology take-up shows no sign of slowing down. By the end of 2012 some predictions suggest that there will be more smartphones than people on planet earth! We heard from the Office of National Statistics late last year that 70% of people aged 16-25 access the internet on a smart device while out and about. Current estimates suggest that by 2014 use of a mobile smart device to access online services will over take that of traditional desktop / laptops.

The picture is clear. Our behaviour online is changing because we are, increasingly, accessing services via this new breed of device. When using these devices the best experience in many (not all) circumstances is provided via a native app. And for this reason apps are not going away any time soon.

A maturing market

However, we will see a maturing in the market. The rush to join the app gold rush will give way to a more mature, considered approach. As an organisation you need to have clear goals for your app; both for yourselves and the intended users. Does this app have a purpose, does it meet a need? Do your users want or need an app? And, importantly, are you going to see a return on your investment?

I am going to put myself out there and say that you are not going to invent Angry Birds. However, with careful, considered planning you can develop apps, as part of a wider mobile strategy that will include a mobile optimised website, that are of value to your users and provide a solid return on investment.

Get in touch

If developing such a web strategy is something that you are interested in why not get in touch.

Late to market with their windows phone they have since struggled to make in-roads into the crowded consumer mobile space. Despite a strong platform and a vibrant developer community, you can’t help but feel they still have a long way to go. But that’s just the phone market.

Tablet Market or iPad Market?

The jury is still out on whether a market for tablets really exists. We do know however, that there is a market for iPads. Lets assume that there is indeed a market for tablets and that it is set to grow over the next few years. With some analysts predicting staggering numbers of tablet sales in the near future, it seems like a safe bet. The question is: Where is Microsoft?

Well, for a start, they are nearly three years and three generations behind. And they have seen first hand just how hard it is to enter a market already dominated by Apple. The rather odd thing is, they don’t think they are entering that market!

Kings of the Enterprise

Microsoft is the undisputed king of the enterprise. Windows takes pride of place on most of the worlds laptops and desktops. Things are a little less clear cut in the server space, but Microsoft has a very healthy slice of that pie too. Right now, they are working on Windows 8 which is expected to hit the street in sometime in the later half of this year. Working closely in conjunction with various hardware partners, Windows 8 is expected to storm onto a new range of dedicated tablets and burst into the enterprise. Uncompromising in their vision, they see a tablet and a PC as essentially the same thing. As undisputed kings of the enterprise, there are many in the Microsoft camp who don’t see the iPad as a threat at all. Microsoft owns the enterprise; when windows 8 is released Microsoft will own the enterprise tablet space…which is all they are really after. This will bleed into the consumer space and hey presto! No worries.

I honestly believe this is how Microsoft sees things. Here is what I see:

• I dont see a Windows tablet. I probably wont see one until the end of 2012.

• A new, immature and untrusted OS from Microsoft.

• Large numbers of businesses still using XP and loath to tryout virgin tech.

• Consumer tech bleeding into the enterprise, not enterprise tech bleeing into the consumer space.

• Enterprise adopting the iPad at an alarming rate.

• A jobs market where .net developers are harder to come by

• A jobs market where Mac and iOS developers are in increasing demand.

• Many many consumers switching to Mac, especially younger ones.

• Relatives who already own or are considering an iPad.

• An even stronger Apple ecosystem that continues to defy competing models

• A beast of a company that wants to makes its own formats and its own hardware the standard across schools and colleges.

• A. Very. Clear. Strategy.

The point is that it doesn’t matter if you like Apple or loath them. It doesn’t matter if Windows 8 is as good as it claims to be. Microsoft have got a mountain to climb and a beast to tame. If they think they can just walk back into the enterprise like nothing has happened after three years of silence…

The Year of the Tablet

I don’t dislike Microsoft. Quite the opposite. As a developer, their tools and platforms are still some of the best you can hope to work with. I own a windows phone (and an iPhone and an Android Phone….shhh!) But while I remain to be convinced about Windows 8 and its bold new UI, I find that perhaps I simply remain to be convinced, period!

For companies asking questions about tablets my advice would be: don’t wait. Don’t wait for a new and untested OS on new and untested hardware. Develop your tablet systems now using the familiar and trusted iPad, or perhaps an equally mature next generation Android device. But don’t wait for for something unknown. You have probably waited too long already.

The colleges student population is made up of individuals of all ages. However, they are predominantly 16-18 years of age. This is important for two reasons:

1. Under 18′s cannot take out a mobile phone contract without the aid of a guarantor.
2. Students will only have, at most, a part time job.

Together, this means that top of the range devices are out of their reach. As they can’t take out a contract, the latest iPhone, for example,  would cost in the region of £700.00 Therefore, this group of users is restricted to the less expensive devices on PAYG deals.
This information explains the high proportion of Blackberry and Android devices that show up on the stats as well as iPhone being top of the aspirational list. This may change in the coming months with the apparent decline of RIM, the predicted rise of Windows Phone, and the decision by Apple to release older versions of the iPhone to the budget market. This is an ever changing landscape.

Now let us look at the apparently conflicting stats that come from those accessing the website and the devices owned by students.  Around 70% of all hits to the college website, via mobile devices, come from iOS devices. However, only 11.5% of the student population own such devices. This clearly points to the suggestion that it is not the students who are access the college site.

This is important information when developing a mobile strategy. It seems that the website, in the main, is being accessed, not by current students, but by prospective students. Or more specifically; their parents. Remember, under 18′s are unlikely to own iPhones but their parents, on higher incomes and able to take our contracts, are more likely to be iPhone users.

This distinction in user base is helpful. It is obvious that currant students and prospective students not only have different needs but are operating within different contexts. We can now develop a two string mobile strategy.

1. Web based presence for prospective students  and their parents.
2. Web or App based approach for current student engagement.

These stats alone do not offer enough information to decide if a Native app, web app, or mobile site is the correct approach for current students. There are a number of factors to consider including a full understanding of the problems to be solved and the available budget. However, this brief insight does highlight that there is more to a mobile strategy that developing an iPhone app. In this case an iPhone app would be a waste of time and money. When considering the development of your mobile strategy ensure that you have set aside sufficient resources to undertake the necessary research and planning phase and not simple dive straight into the development of that shiny new app.

The report talks about tablet computing in general terms but, reading between the lines and looking at the sales figures for ‘tablets’ that are actually in use in the enterprise, you might as well just call a spade a spade. We are talking about the iPad. For the moment at least. However, the report goes on to say:

“By 2016, more than 900 million tablets will be in the hands of users…Leaders are finding legitimate business use and redefining processes for ‘ready at hand’ moments where other computer types are not as well adapted. CEOs often prefer tablets for distributing material for board of directors meetings. Salespeople are using them in client-facing situations; sales configuration tools help close more business and reduce error rates; sales and marketing leaders are using them as dashboards to their business; and marketers are designing campaigns around them.  Doctors and nurses are carrying them; they are even being used on the manufacturing floor. Anywhere you once saw people carrying a clipboard or lugging printed reference material, you’ll find an application for a tablet. “

A Very Big Number

900 million is a big number. Tablet sales for 2011 are currently expected to meet 63 million units. That is a massive amount of growth being predicted. If true, it makes sense to start taking the iPad (sorry, tablets!) seriously. Just the other week I was having a conversation with a couple of business leaders from a well respected IT consultancy company who understand full well the impact mobile is having, and will continue to have, in the corporate IT world . Unfortunately there are still many who fail to see the disruptive nature of these devices, referring to them simply as “boys toys” and “fancy gadgets”. I have heard this on more than one occasion. Every time from someone who has not actually had much (or any) experience with them and yet holds a prominent position in a technology company.

This ‘second wave’ is happening right now. In-fact, it has been happening for quite some time. iPads are silently and unobtrusively invading the workplace; normally starting with the CEO’s and working down. Most second wave apps are not available in app stores but instead are managed by corporate IT departments who find themselves having to work in a wholly different way with a completely different set of technologies. The report actually goes on to suggest that: “IT management systems for mobile device management will be a growing market.”

The Top 10 Commercial Business Applications for Tablets

So, what are businesses actually using them for now and what will they be using them for in the near future? According to Gartner, the top ten comercial business application categories for tablet devices are:

• Sales automation systems for customer collateral, sales presentations, and ordering systems
• Business intelligence: analytical and performance applications with management dashboards
• Containerised email to separate corporate messaging environments from personal email
• Collaboration applications for meetings
• File utilities for sharing and document distribution
• General corporate/government enterprise applications for CRM, ERP, SCM and messaging
• Medical support systems for doctors, nurses, and physical therapists
• Hosted virtual desktop agents to provide secure remote operations of traditional desktop applications and environments
• Social networking applications with intelligent business insight
• Board books for secure document and report distribution

Beyond Boys Toys

I would love to know how ‘normal’ people are already using iPads within their business environment. Whether you disagree entirely with this report or perhaps have an example of somewhere tablet computing has made a positive difference in your organisation, let us know in the comments below. Perhaps its something you are only just beginning to take seriously? or perhaps you are fighting your corner for or against the “boys toys” argument? Why not share your experience with the rest of us?