SEO Extreme Copywriter and Podcaster | Scott Paton | Internet Marketing

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The increasing ubiquity of Apple’s iPad is evident in airports and technology conferences, especially. The tablet’s use is so widespread that an army of hands was raised when Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff asked on stage at a Gartner conference here how many people were using the tablet.

“The computer wasn’t even available a year ago,” said Benioff, who was making a larger point about the pace of change in the tech industry. “I never have seen anything like what’s happening now.”

“The level of innovation that I see coming from this next generation of leaders is awesome,” he said.

Many iPad sales are likely being driven by corporate spending, which includes people such as Michael Hedges, the CIO, vice president and head of global IT at Medtronic, who has purchased 4,500 iPads for his company. Medtronic employs 40,000 people.

Hedges may have been among the first corporate users to find an interesting use for the iPad. The device was released on April 3, a Saturday, and Hedges quickly arranged to buy 10 iPads and then ship them out for a trade show in Germany the following Wednesday.

Normally, Medtronic would have had large and very expensive displays at its booth, but in this case it loaded up its iPads with product information and then put them on display.

The iPad wasn’t being sold then in Europe and the devices were an immediate hit, Hedges said.

“It was such a huge success because people came to our booth not to look at the Medtronic product but to look at the iPad,” he said at Gartner’s Symposium/ITexpo. “I didn’t care — I just wanted them at the booth.”

But Medtronic is also buying iPads because they offer instant access to data and video, a particularly important attribute when showing product information to customers. Hedges said instant-on was a key business value, for the iPad or any tablet.

Hedges is trying to buy iPads without increasing the incremental cost of IT. One option being considered to acomplish that is the possibility of extending a three-year refresh rate for some desktops and laptops to four years, he said.

If the iPad seems like it is everywhere, market numbers released by Gartner back that perception up. It forecast worldwide media tablet sales, including iPad, to reach 19.5 million units this year and 54.8 million units in 2011, an increase of 181%.

Scott iPad

If you’ve ever been skeptical about the popularity of Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch apps, Apple has some figures for you. The company announced today that users have downloaded 2 billion apps from the App Store. Some other figures from Apple:

* Over 85,000 apps are available from the App Store
* There are over 50 million iPhones and iPod touches in the wild
* There are over 125,000 developers signed up for the company’s Developer program

With Apple taking a 30 percent chunk of every app sold, the popularity of the App Store is generating a nice, steady trickle of revenue. Of course, many popular apps are available for free, but those still contribute to the popularity of the App Store, which, in turn, helps drive iPhone and iPod touch sales.

Apple celebrated the billionth download in April of this year, and it has managed another 2 billion in just over 10 months. Can McDonald’s with its “Billions and Billions Served” keep up?

Scott iPhones

Earlier in the year, when we said that Flash is dead & the iPad is its tombstone, our thoughts were primarily on the 100 million + iOS devices that people were happily using, Flash free.

Many thought that this trend towards people working blissfully Flash-free would end as people using the larger-form-factor iPad ran into sites with broken Flash elements.

But no – the iPad isn’t just the fastest-selling gadget ever, the device has the highest satisfaction rating of any product that a leading consumer satisfaction index has ever tracked.

The “Flash Tax”

Now Apple’s Macs are shipping Flash-free, and it’s highlighting the “Flash tax” – the hit Flash puts on your computer’s performance, browser stability and battery life.

According to testing by Chris Foresman of Ars Technica, Flash can cut your battery life by a third, just to display banner ads.

“Having Flash installed can cut battery runtime considerably,” notes Forman. “As much as 33 percent, in our testing.”

If you’re like most laptop users, you’ve got a browser window open all the time. If so, Flash is probably chowing through a large chunk of your battery life, so that it can keep some banner ads blinking.

With Flash missing in action on the most popular mobile platforms and now on the latest crop of Macs, Flash is dead as a de facto Internet standard.

From: http://www.podcastingnews.com/content/2010/11/flash-is-dead-as-a-de-facto-internet-standard/

Scott iPhones

IK Multimedia has introduced iKlip — a $39.99 multi-angle iPad microphone stand adapter.

This could come in handy if you use the iPad for controlling Garageband, as a digital audio recorder, for reading scripts or with other music and audio apps.

According to IK Multimedia, the iKlip is is constructed from dense thermoplastic molded components for “extreme durability and secure holding abilities under the most demanding situations”.

Features:

* Sturdy, durable thermoplastic construction with sure-grip touch points — securely holds your iPad without scratching or marring it
* Universal stand clip securely attaches to virtually any microphone stand
* Multi-angle adjustment allows precise positioning for optimal stage or studio viewing
* Quick-snap clips provide fast, secure iPad insertion
* Fast installation — iKlip installs on your mic stand in seconds with the twist of a knob
* All controls, buttons and connectors are accessible when your iPad is clipped into iKlip
* Multi-mount design provides both horizontal and vertical orientation of your iPad
* Can be mounted on the vertical part of a mic stand, or on a horizontal boom for limitless positioning
* Designed and manufactured in Italy

Scott iPad

Scott iTunes

A survey released Thursday by International Data Corporation shows Apple jumped past RIM during the third quarter of 2010. The iPhone-maker shipped 14.1 million phones during the quarter, representing 4.1 per cent of the worldwide mobile phone market. In the same quarter, according to IDC, RIM shipped 12.4 million phones, or 3.6 per cent of the market.

Apple now sits behind LG, Samsung and Nokia, who control a far larger percentage of the overall market but all lost or gained very little market share during the last quarter, as more consumers switch from traditional cellphones to smart phones such as the BlackBerry and the iPhone.

“[The] mobile phone makers that are delivering popular smart-phone models are among the fastest growing firms,” said IDC senior research analyst Kevin Restivo. “Vendors that aren’t developing a strong portfolio of smart phones will be challenged to maintain and grow market share in the future.”

Mr. Restivo predicts that smart phones will drive the overall mobile phone market until the end of 2014, with 55-per-cent, year-over-year growth in 2010.

But such predictions are perhaps more worrying for traditional handset makers, rather than RIM, which still saw its shipment numbers increase even as it was surpassed by Apple on the IDC list. Of the top three worldwide vendors, only Samsung, which has aggressively pursued a smart-phone strategy based on Google’s Android operating system, saw significant market share growth during the third quarter of 2010. Nokia, the world’s top-selling handset-maker, and LG, both lost ground.

Scott iPhones

Scott iTunes

Interesting… think it is coincidence that the only person who used text message marketing in the 2010 Calgary campaign for Mayor won? This alone should show you that mobile marketing is extremely powerful. Business owners, corporations, organizations, churches, and politicians are only now awakening to its potential.

Nenshi was smart enough to recognize that marketing IS communication. And since text messages have a 97% open rate it makes it the MOST effective form of marketing that we know of.

Watch for information about how you can use text messaging in your business.

Scott iPhones

Scott iTunes