No, I wanted to briefly discuss the real Apple - purveyors of fine electronic gadgetry. From a business perspective I'd say Apple's greatest contribution to my working life has been twofold. Firstly keeping me sane for the long hours of my business travels listening to a variety of music and content on first my 4gb Ipod Nano (1) and more recently my Ipod Touch. As an offshoot from this I have gotten in to and now listen to regularly a variety of business and related podcasts.
The practical business contribution has been minimal though. That being said I do now use an Imac as my main desktop computer (her name is Maisie - not sure how she ended up with a name but there you go). I love the Imac, she is without shadow of a doubt the best computer I have ever owned. Maisie is however a computer and does broadly the same 'stuff' as my old HP personal computer. She does it better and faster too.
One of the things that has been occupying me in recent days is the Iphone and the Ipad. Now as you'll begin to gather from the above initial comments, I am becoming (become?) a complete Apple fanboy. To date in my house hold we have the following Apple kit :
Ipod Nano x 3 (mark1 2gb, mark 1 4gb, mark 2 8gb)
Ipod Touch 1
Imac 21.5inch with 500gb hard disk
Iphone 3G
At the moment I don't personally own or use an Iphone (the 3g belongs to Mrs Localventure) but I really want one. I use both a Blackberry and a Nokia E71 at the minute for a mixture of business and personal use. The Blackberry will be staying but the E71 is nearly out of contract and will be replaced in a couple of months. So in Iphone territory I'm conflicted. The 3G is available on contract for free with similar monthly cost to the E71 but the 3GS which is faster and (sad to admit it) much cooler - but it's still massively expensive compared to similar phones. Plus, and this is always the problem with techy gadgets - the Iphone 4G is expected to launch in June 2010 - where the coolness of the 3GS will be superseded and to further complicate matters no doubt the 3GS will also come down in price versus the new 4G at around the launch time. So it would seem illogical to jump in on the Iphone bandwagon now.
As a business smart phone, having played with the 3G versus my Nokia I know that it probably doesn't add much in practicality terms (other than meaning I won't need to carry both the E71 and an ipod around with me). As a phone/camera it's probably inferior to the E71 in fact. So on the Iphone I think it's decision made - wait until June and either queue forever to get a 4G or possibly snap up a 3GS at a reduced cost in the Summer.
Moving on to the piece de resistance - the Ipad. Now first let's be clear on this subject. I am going to get one. I know it's really just a big Ipod Touch - but wow ! it looks so sleek, sultry and sexy - I really can't wait.
I had a disscusion about the Ipad with someone last week and they asked me the really ridiculous question :
"What are you planning to use it for that is different to your Ipod touch"
Do you know what ? I really did not have an answer to that question. However, and this is important, I spent ages thinking of justifications for spending £ 400 plus on this item (it is going to be a birthday present however) - luckily it came to me last week. It's a business justification and I think that it is a good one. Kind of.
I was in London presenting to a business. It wasn't a pure client acquisition situation as he wanted my business to use him as much as I wanted to sell my services to him. We had the slightly embarrassing issue therefore of both needing to bring out our respective laptops to present to each other. Having sorted an order my prospective client went first. He proceed to being out a teeny note book type laptop and present on that. This was a major problem for me because I own two laptops. A massive brick sized Toshiba (which although big, ungainly and slow has a great screen for presenting on) and a smaller (personal) compaq on which I haven't even gotten around to installing powerpoint yet. Guess which laptop I'd lugged all the way along the Northern and Bakerloo lines to Marylebone ? Having seen the presentation I apologised for even bringing my flagstone of a laptop out in public and began to present. And here's the thing, he said : "don't be embarrassed, my work laptop is as big as yours - I just bring out my personal one these days as it's easier to carry".
This was the point at which the inspiration hit.
I've always resenting carrying a laptop around London - even my smaller personal one is still relatively heavy and put it in a laptop bag along with a folder and (I kid you not) sandwiches - I won't get rich buying my lunch from Starbucks every day will ? - and you end up with a real mill stone, literally round your neck between appointments.
Now I know, that if I lighten the load and remove the sandwiches (?) and perhaps take a smaller folder it would work out much cheaper just to buy a copy of powerpoint and use my Compaq (which I love by the way and it is the second best computer I have ever owned - after Maisie) but imagine pulling out the Ipad in a meeting and booting up the Keynote app and presenting on that crystal clear 9.7 inch screen - not sure it's entirely professional but it certainly is a fanboy dream of a purchase justification.
So that's the decision made there too - the 16gb entry level wifi only model - £ 429 + £ 30 for the case - pre-order went in at 06.30 on the 28th of May
Not really sure if the above will be of any use to you in business - other than to say - business should be fun and I think that Apple (whilst perhaps they've lost their way a little in terms of PR and corporate bullying in the past few months) products do enable you to do some of those business tasks in a user friendly and fun way.
Phil
No comments:
Post a Comment