Close Encounters Of The iPad Kind
It wasn’t as easy as I expected to spot Linda Sevier at Tatnuck Café in Westborough.
She was the one with the iPad, and I assumed she’d stick out like a sore thumb, touching her way through the Internet on the new fangled device.
But when I first saw Linda, seated at a table, it didn’t look like she was working with an iPad. It looked like she was typing away on a very small laptop.
And there, I suppose, is the biggest misconception about Apple’s new iPad, which launched April 1. If you believe the skeptics, and there are many, the iPad is nothing more than a useless, $500 toy whose sole purpose is to collect fingerprints.
But based on my first encounter with the device, which I admit was brief, it’s a fully functioning laptop — just lighter and more fun.
Jobs Fan
I had arranged to meet with Sevier after finding out through the Worcester Business Journal LinkedIn group that she was a local early adopter of the iPad. Sevier is a self-confessed Apple addict and overall geek (she used the word first). She’s not only got one iPad, which she loves, she actually has two — one for her teenage daughter and one for her. And her husband and college-age son have 3G-enabled iPads on order. She will soon live in a four-iPad household.
Sevier is a business owner. She opened Pagetender LLC in 1998 after a career working in high tech. As search engine optimization became increasingly important for businesses to “get found,” she broadened her focus. And then she ended up working first as a consultant, and later as a certified partner, with Boston-based HubSpot, which has quickly developed a name for itself as a leader in “inbound marketing.” Today, her growing company includes one full-time and two part-time employees. She recently moved from her Westborough office to a new 1,250-square-foot space in North-borough.
In Sevier’s view, the iPad is a gift from Steve Jobs to make her life easier.
“To take this to a meeting instead of a laptop is fabulous,” she said, explaining that the iPad is “really good at the beginning of the creative cycle,” when you’re pulling ideas together and taking notes, and then “really good at the end,” when you’re traveling to give a presentation.
Of course, Sevier isn’t the only local business person to have her hands on an iPad.
As of April 15, Apple had sold more than 840,000 iPads, according to Chitika, an online advertising network.
Chitika also estimates number of iPads per state, and not surprisingly, Massachusetts — with all its tech lovers — is in the Top 10 (Number 7, to be exact). Specifically, Chitika estimates there’s one iPad per every 545th person in Massachusetts. Using some simple math, I drilled down a little further to get a local perspective. Worcester County has a population of about 783,000, therefore we can use the Chitika rate to calculate there are 1,400 iPads in owned by Wor-cester County residents.
Joining Sevier and the other thousand or so Worcester County residents is Mike Savino, owner of Mike Savino Film/Video of Holden.
He too is deeply enamored with his iPad, which he took on a business trip to Atlanta and found that it a handy tool to stay connected while on the move.
I was also particularly interested to hear Savino’s review of consuming news on an iPad. Many in the industry are claiming that the iPad, with its full-color graphics and light weight, will be the savior for newspapers. And, at least according to Savino, there’s some truth to those predictions.
He’s used the Wall Street Journal application designed for the iPad and called it “fantastic.” And that’s pretty significant praise, considering that Savino is an “old paper person” who still loves the feel of newsprint.
Of course, there are plenty of nay-sayers who are predicting that the iPad is just a gimmick. And even Apple-lovers like Sevier can point out some flaws with the initial launch, including the clunky file transfer system that relies on iTunes.
In my view, the iPad isn’t going to the revolutionize the way any of us do business. But it might make how we do business a bit more interesting — and fun. As for me, I’m not rushing to get an iPad — yet. Ask me in six months and you might get a different answer.
Got news for our Digital Diva column? E-mail Christina H. Davis at cdavis@wbjournal.com.
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