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In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we deliver the final summary and evaluation of the first Apple(R) iPad(R) in our series of the program called PROJECT iPAD-DAY ONE.
As a summary, here are the episodes that were presented in this Project:
119- Overview of the Project
119A- iPad is a good tool for business (interview with Thomas Umstattd);
119B- iPad is not for business, but is just a toy (interviews);
119C- Chronology of the “Journey”: An Entrepreneur’s experience of buying the Apple iPad on DAY ONE;
119D- iPad for specialized Health Industry and medical applications- interview with Richard Ehrlich;
119E- First update – Review of some apps;
119F- Second update- Frustrations with ipad features and accessories (or lack thereof);
119G- Third update – Mobile Entrepreneur apps;
119G1- Problem with iPad – intermittent battery failure;
119H- Fourth update- Traveling Entrepreneurs;
119I-Fifth update- Questions from Entrepreneurs about the iPad at the Social Media Breakfast session;
119-BONUS- Commuter Entrepreneur productivity with iPad while in transit;
119J- How the iPad fares with authors/writers in the Publishing Industry- presentation by Thomas Umstattd from his blog post at Author Tech Tips.
119K- This audio episode, which closes out PROJECT iPAD-DAY ONE.
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As you will hear in this episode, we also deliver the perspectives of two podcasters that gave their summaries of their experiences with the iPad:
- Paul Colligan: an industry pundit and author in the New Media, Social Media and Internet Marketing space. He tried to run his business for 30 days with ONLY the iPad in his program called “OPERATION iPAD.” Hear : what his results were and his evaluation.
- Andrew Lock: a podcaster who had a positive experience when using the iPad for reading, entertainment and travel.
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Final iPad Review: the categories of Business Use.
For the closing summary of PROJECT iPAD-DAY ONE, we grouped the business uses of the iPad (i.e., where the iPad was clearly a business tool that helped achieve business results) into four categories for the Entrepreneur:
1. Specialized Vertical apps for the MOBILE ENTREPRENEUR in VERTICAL INDUSTRIES
- these included the health industry, medical professionals, retail Point-of-Sale requirements and Conferences/events;
2. The MOBILE ENTREPRENEUR in face-to-face communication
- This includes sales, business development, marketing or face-to-face communication with customers, clients, investors and other stakeholders;
- this also includes the voice-recording and email-forwarding requirements for specific principals.
3. The TRAVELING ENTREPRENEUR
- this includes the use during flight, during the meetings and conferences, and also its use in the hotel room at the end of the day (both for business and reading/catch-up work and entertainment);
4. The COMMUTER ENTREPRENEUR
- this is mainly productive use in transit when commuting by train or light rail;
5. And the WRITER-AUTHOR ENTREPRENEUR
- This is a special category in the Publishing Industry (as described by Thomas Umstattd in the previous episode of this series).
As we mention during this audio episode, we decided to close the Project at this time for 2 main reasons: (1) The new version of the iPad with 3G connectivity had just been released; and (2) More articles, summaries, comparisons, contrasts, reviews and evaluations were finally being published by others who have now had a month to investigate, dissect and test the iPad more extensively.
A final resource that was recommended (although the content is biased toward Apple’s favor, as this is clearly an “Apple Fan-Boy”) is Rob Walch and his podcast called Today in iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. You will be able to get the current activities, issues, problems, promotions, upgrades, news and everything iPad from this free podcast on iTunes(R) (as well as a $2.00 USD premium app in the Apple App Store).
Post Script: not ready for business yet–due to poor wifi.
As a final postscript to this PROJECT iPAD-DAY ONE program, we tested the wifi capability and speed and progress within tested hot spots or access points. Unfortunately, the iPad FAILED MISERABLY.
Let me give you the scenario:
- On the Metro Rail transit, the wifi was acceptable, and the iPad found the hot spots and connected. Some productive work was done until I got to the downtown location and went into the Hilton Hotel(R) (across the street from the Metro station and the Convention Center).
As you would expect from the large hotel chains of quality, the Hilton had over 3 hot spots and access points that were NOT secure. One was the “Hilton“; the other was “Hilton Honors” and the last was “Free wifi access.” The iPad did detect them, but the iPad FAILED MISERABLY to connect to ANY of the three wifi hot spots within 40 minutes of trying and trying again.
How unacceptable this was when I tried to show a conference attendee the use of the iPad (as it could NOT connect, while others’ laptops were connected to the free wifi in the lobby).
However, after 15 minutes of my futile attempts to connect to wifi with my iPad, I was frustrated and then brought out my laptop (A Dell (R) 640m Inspiron–a 4 year-old piece of hardware running Windows(R) XP). The laptop IMMEDIATELY CONNECTED to the wifi hotspots — not only one, but I disconnected and reconnected to all three without problem, without fail, and within seconds.
Thus, my demo of the iPad was a failure to the individual who patiently waited. Out of courtesy, after my success with the Dell, I connected to the internet and showed my YouTube video and my episodes in this podcast sereis of The Struggling Entrepreneur for PROJECT iPAD-DAY ONE. Thus, I was able to provide some value to the individual, although the iPad was considered “useless” as far as connectivity goes.
So then, after my success with the Dell laptop, I once again tried the iPad. Again, no success. Incredible, isn’t it? Without the wifi capability, there is no business; without the connectivity, the main value proposition for the iPad evaporates.
You would think that this was just an isolated incident, right? Unfortunately, when I attended a Meetup session at a coworking environment, there were 4 wifi hotspot access points within four feet from my iPad. Well, there was no iPad wifi connection–the connectivity icon just kept spinning and spinning for over an hour. What was more incredible is that a business associate of mine arrived–with his own iPad (the same configuration as mine). Well, his iPad connected right away, while my iPad could not connect for almost an hour.
Thus, I sat there with a useless system while he was able to use it with Internet connectivity.
Obviously, this was NOT an isolated case, as this is a recurring problem with this system. As a user, I was left with a useless device. Diagnosis: defective device.
Now we shall see what Apple will do to fix it (they had told me before that they could do nothing until I could re-create the problem in front of them). However, the only thing I can say is that intermittent defects such as these leave this machine out of the business community entirely — no dependability, no reliability and no availability to do what it is supposed to do and what the value proposition promises to do.
Thus, my conclusion is that this problem–when added to all the shortcomings and lack of features, accessories, and industrial-strength apps–results in my NOT being able to recommend this device for small business owners or Entrepreneurs (with the exception of the above 5 CATEGORIES of business use).
As Paul Colligan mentioned in his summary of the iPad within this audio episode, “The iPad…is not a business replacement tool in any sense of the imagination…; For getting work done pretty quickly, it’s just NOT it.”
Copyright (c) 2010, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
iPhone, Apple, iPad, iTunes and iPod are trademarks or registerred trademarks of Apple Inc.
Dell is a trademark or registered trademark of Dell, Inc.
Hilton and Hilton Hotels are registered trademarks of Hilton Hotels, Inc.
Windows and XP are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
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