The Essential iPad Productivity Guide

While many doubted the release of the iPad would prove popular, initial suspicions suggested that the iPad was nothing more than a large iPhone or an iPod.  But Apple was fairly confident that the iPad would have flighty wings because an established customer base already existed in the name of the iPhone.  With an existing app eco-system, new iPad customers could still use their iPhone apps with 2x screen enlargement with their existing app investments as a temporary catch-all. But Apple also made sure that developers had ample time between announcement and release of the iPad to upgrade their existing iPhone/iPod Touch apps to iPad with the early release of their software development kit.

With the iPad, Apple’s intent was to define a new category of device specifically focused on consumption.  Apple undoubtedly looked at user behavior between their iPhone and MacBooks and discovered a gap in terms of function and utility.  While Mac desktops and Macbook laptops were used for heavy duty tasks and projects, on the whole, most users were using these expensive units to consume content.  Further, Apple did not believe the Netbook was the correct form-factor for office productivity on the go.  Let’s be honest, who could work off the small screen with extremely small keyboards?  Media reports as early as September 2010 indicated that the iPad was a factor in softening netbook sales even though it launched in January 2010. With the recent momentum in iPad sales with enterprise customers, many are now speculating that netbook sales could drop extremely fast.

Even with these soft signals in the marketplace, it is safe to conclude that the iPad does have an early lead in changing perceptions about this new category of device and can become a complementary tool in your quest for productivity on-to-go. While one cannot expect the same powerful experience as a Macbook or PC laptop, the iPad is a simpler, more functional alternative in getting things done quickly and efficiently on a daily-task level.

To keep yourself connected, productive and useful on a train or transit commute or even a short flight to your next business meeting, the following iPad apps can ensure you get things done.

Apple’s iWorks Suite

While not an equal to Apple’s Mac version or even close to Microsoft’s Office Desktop suite, Apple’s iPad iWork suite of Pages (Word), Numbers (Excel) and Keynote (Powerpoint) was built from the ground up to work with the new form factor of the iPad.  Each app within the suite is priced under $10 which does make for a great price.  Early versions of the app had many limitations but Apple has slowly delivered several upgrades to correct fixes, bugs and to add new features to counteract limitations in the original release.  While not the best solution out there for an Office-style suite of productivity apps, there are few other contenders that may be better based on your personal taste.  These include Quickoffice’s Quickoffice Mobile Connect Suite and Dataviz’s Documents to Go Premium which are priced at about $10 less than the full iWorks suite price.  One other alternative that would require connectivity is Google Docs with its suite of web-based applications for office productivity. With Google Docs, you can access their office suite web apps from your iPad Safari browser. The cost is free.

Expect to have some degree of productivity to edit and make some entries over short periods of time with iPad office-suite apps but don’t expect them to be the quarterback for the last yard in a comprehensive session of data, presentation or document creation.

Evernote

Evernote has become one of the most innovative products available on the market today.  In short, it is a software suite designed for note-taking and archiving.  With Evernote, users can leave formattable text, webpages, webpage excerpts, images, voice memos and handwritten ink notes in a universal suitecase.  Notes can be sorted into folders, tagged, edited, annotated, commented or searched for.  As a cloud-based service, Evernote provides online synchronization and backup services across an entire range of client applications which include Macs, PCs, Blackberry, Maemo, WebOS, Android and iOS devices such as iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch. As a freemium model, Evernote offers a free version of their service with limited storage capacity and several levels for paid plans.

Goodreader

Designed for heavy users of PDFs, word documents, presentations and videos, Goodreader provides a file system which allows you to organize your files cleanly  within Apple’s iOS platform.  On the iPad, Goodreader is an amazing tool for viewing your documents and is far more functional than Apple’s new iBook native app which can only view PDFs and epub format documents.  Additionally, Goodreader supports all major cloud-based services such as Dropbox, Apple’s MobileMe in addition to USB sync.

Things

With the iPad as your productivity tool, you should not make-do without a to-do manager.  Things for iPad is a favorite because it behaves nicely with the desktop version but requires a bit more feature consistency with the Mac desktop client.  But more importantly, it is a simpler alternative to some of the more complex ‘Getting Things Done’ apps.

Bento

Like Evernote, Bento is the virtual version of a shoebox or universal briefcase. Bento allows you to manage contacts and club members, coordinate projects or parties and track bills or maintenance reports through one app. Bento works as a standalone app but can also sync with Bento for Mac desktops and comes packed with 25 ready-to-use database templates.

With third short list of iPad apps, you are guaranteed to start your day productively.  As the iPad app universe continues to grow, you will find amazing new functionality which continues to make your iPad investment a worthy one.  As of this writing in December 2010, we have now started to see the introduction of sketch-based iPad apps or screenwriting apps to help writers compose their next Sundance success story.