So all the Apple fanboys and girls – and those who should know better – have been singing the praises of the Apple iPad before it’s even launched at its adoring public. But before we all get carried away on a wave of Apple lovin’, we should bear in mind that the must-have bit of tech du jour, the iPhone is still very much a niche product.
Although it’s growing, it commands just 18 per cent of the market – and that’s just the smartphone market – not the mobile phone sector as a whole*. And let’s not forget that the first raft of tablet PCs haven’t exactly set the world on fire, suffering from a lack of dedicated software support and issues with actual usability.
So, as far as us B2Bers are concerned, is there a significant market out there in businessland for the latest and greatest communications toy to hit us since… the last one? And what are tablets good for, specifically, what use are they in B2B? Well, they should be the best platform for browsing and reading, thanks to their high-resolution screens. Resource pieces, brochures, newsletters, and interactive content should generally be winners on a tablet. You could see them as a sort of digital paper; soon you could well be reading this column on a tablet in all its high-resolution glory.
Part eBook, part laptop, by their nature they’re more passive than ‘work’ tools; which could mean that they’ll mostly be used in down time – during travel, waiting at airports or in front of the telly. This then begs the question, will they be used to catch up on work, or just used for entertainment? Actually, they could be very useful for keeping abreast of the industry press, catching up on those white papers you’ve been meaning to dive into, and for reading that latest Seth Godin proselytism. Hell, you can carry around a whole library with you. And for me, this is the most attractive proposition: a means to replace the mountain of magazines and books that clog up my desk and bag, with the added bonus of the Internet attached.
Broken windows
Another thing that interests me in this upcoming wave of tablets (iPad-aside) is the predominance of Google’s Android, the open-source operating system. This makes me feel funny. In a nice way. If tablets do become the next must-have, will they then sound the first death knell for Windows? A few years ago, to most people it was inconceivable that there was any alternative to Windows, now, people are very comfortable using smartphones and tablets that run alternative operating systems. Redmond should be worried.
As B2B marketers, you will need to make sure your website and collateral will be tailored for tablets. It will need to work seamlessly well to attract a B2B audience. It won’t be good enough to have a ‘we’ll do a PDF for print and then stick it online and they’ll just have to print it out to read it’ type approach, as was the attitude to the first wave of tablet PCs. Instead, information will need to be readable directly on screen. But this is a good thing – less paper, less trees destroyed – and it means that we can take advantage of and benefit from a richer user experience of interactive and video capabilities than Adobe PDFs offer us.
For your website, you’ll need to make sure that certain interactive behaviours will work on a touchscreen, for instance, ensuring that dropdown menus function as intended – fingers can’t ‘hover’ like a mouse. Text must scale to counter ‘fat-finger’ syndrome and plug-in content like Flash must work in tablet browsers (which it won’t on the iPad, thanks to Apple’s continuing sour grapes with Adobe).
Apps are key to deeper business relationships
The ultimate way to really embrace the technology is to create your own custom applications. For B2B, there have been two main issues with doing this. One is in finding a real purpose for developing an application in the first place.
Secondly, it’s been a case of whether the investment is really worth it, considering the niche take-up and the smaller audiences involved in B2B (though this could be countered by the deeper relationships inherent in B2B).
This should change, however, and with a bit of creative thinking and bravery, the tablet application market offers B2B a range of possibilities, from apps to support your collateral and integrate with social media communities, to apps directly linked with your service. This means that you’ll be able to offer people a much deeper relationship with your business.
Whatever happens, these are interesting times for technology watchers. Most people won’t invest at first, but as the slew of tablet products hits the marketplace over the next year and prices come down, the new category might just be firmly established. And for those pioneering, early-adopter businesses who embrace the possibilities that tablet technology offers, it could give them a significant edge – making the financial and creative investment more than worth it as their competitors struggle to catch them.
