Apple quietly slips into number three spot in global portable market

Filed under: iPad
Who would have thought that headline would ever appear? Well it has, and if you count the iPad Apple has just passed Asus, Toshiba, Dell and Lenovo and is now the number three producer of portables.

That's the word from Fortune this morning, quoting Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore. Using the June quarter numbers from the banking company, Apple has moved from the seventh spot in the global portable market, trailing only HP and Acer.

Not fair you say? Well Deutsche Bank says iPad sales are cannibalizing demand for other notebooks, and the report also notes that sales of Apple laptops are also climbing.

[Via Fortune]

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BBC E-mail: UK troops use iPad app for fire mission training

For the first time, UK troops are using a special app developed for the iPad to learn how to handle a fire mission. That's when artillery is being fired at the enemy from several miles away. In early trials at the Royal School of Artillery in Wiltshire, troops have learned the jargon and procedures more quickly than before, when they were sat listening to lessons from instructors. It's hoped smartphone and tablet technology could be used to speed up training across the army.

Front line Lance Bombardier Jason Markham from 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery has already served in Afghanistan and is in training for a second tour. He told Newsbeat how it works. He said: "I'd be at the HQ - the troops on the ground would call me for fire support and they'd give me the target location and a description of the target.

If we can use this sort of technology, we can probably shorten the amount of training and that is pretty key nowadays when people are so committed to operations in Afghanistan

Major Rich Gill Army training officer

 

"We'd use all of that information to come up with a solution. "This has been designed to let us practise, so that when we get out there into theatre we're a lot slicker. "It makes it more fun instead of being sat in a classroom looking at a presentation being given information. "If you're on a course you can take this back to the block and practise with it, even have little competitions with it." Soldiers back at the CP (command post) have to learn how to communicate with those on the front line, to make sure the right weapons are fired, at the right time and at the right target.

3D app They're using the iPad back at base in Wiltshire to sharpen their skills. Major Rich Gill is an army training officer, who has been involved in rolling out the app. He said: "If we can use this sort of technology, we can probably shorten the amount of training and that is pretty key nowadays when people are so committed to operations in Afghanistan.

 

Soldiers at the Wiltshire base say the iPad app has made training fun "There's so much they need to do before they go there and when they come back. "If we can use this to reduce the amount of training it'll be fantastic."
But the investment in iPads comes at a time when the armed forces are facing budget cuts. Major Gill insists the move is good value for money as it saves on other costs like printing reference guides and manuals.

He told Newsbeat that 15 other options were considered and denies that using Apple's gadget is a gimmick: "That was one of the first things we considered and it's not about the gimmicky side of it. "You can get all the material that you need on there at the right time and it's really mobile as well. At the time this project came about this was the best bit of hardware on the market." And he says it's not a case of cutting out mistakes: "From what we've done over in Afghanistan with the training we've been through, we don't really make mistakes. "The training back here is the best it can be and if we can improve it then that's exactly what we need to be doing."

The same team is also working on a 3D app for army pilots, who have to learn to recognise different vehicles from the air as part of their training.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/10813964

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Apple says iPhone and iPad are at use in most Fortune 100 companies

More than 80 percent of Fortune 100 companies are using the iPhone, and about 50 percent of the Fortune 100 are deploying or testing the iPad, Apple revealed Tuesday.

Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook announced those figures during the company's quarterly earnings conference call Tuesday evening. He said that the company is selling iPads and iPhones "as fast as (they) can make them," including those sales to the enterprise market

The iPhone has steadily grown in the enterprise market since it was first introduced in 2007. But Apple's comments on Tuesday would seem to suggest that the iPad has found faster adoption in the enterprise market.

The remaining question is: What are those businesses using the iPad for? Apple's executives did not provide any indication, though numerous companies have publicly embraced the device, giving some idea of where the iPad is being used.

Earlier this month, Wells Fargo revealed it initially bought 15 iPads used to demonstrate products at an investor conference. While the company spent two years looking at the iPhone, it spent just two weeks to approve the iPad for use. The company's experience with the iPad has led it to buy "a bunch" more.

In addition, Mercedes-Benz has used the iPad to sell cars, allowing sales people to handle credit applications on the touchscreen tablet device. The company is now considering using iPads at all 350 of its U.S. dealerships.

And SAP has developed its own iPad application, allowing managers to approve shipping of customer orders. The company also has a handful of other custom applications planned for development.  

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Company to begin testing restaurant iPad POS system

Lecere will begin testing their iPad-based, Fully-Integrated Restaurant Management Software in a "major restaurant chain" this week.

The iPad FIRMS POS system, which can also be used with the iPod touch, offers a 90% savings on traditional POS systems and can be optimized to fit restaurants of any level -- form the individual restaurant to multinational chain restaurants, to hotels.

"Using those devices [iPad, iPod touch], along with a couple of standard ticket printers, brings the startup cost for the pilot to under $2,000," Lecere CEO Jim Morris said. "Contrast that with an upfront cost of about $20,000 to install a traditional, on-premises POS system with its heavy, non-movable POS terminals, printers, and back-office servers."

Ignoring the fact that the above video has the production values of a bad porno, the POS system on an iPad could easily take off, especially once you consider the cost savings over a traditional POS system. If any of you are restaurant dining this week and happen to see the FIRMS iPad POS system in action, be sure to let us know how the experience went and what restaurant chain you saw it at!

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iPhone OS 4.0: The Enterprise Mobility Perspective

So the day many of us have been waiting for is upon us. Apple just announced iPhone OS 4.0.

Having just finished watching the presentation on a couple of different web sites, I came away with some mixed feelings. As usual, details were rather light on the topics that mattered to me most (the enterprise mobility perspective), to focus instead on the things that Apple understands best – consumer desire.

There were some interesting side statistics that came out.

* About 450,000 iPads have been sold to date. That’s pretty impressive for something that is so new. It certainly doesn’t match the iPhone numbers, but let’s not forget that the Tablet PC is a “new” concept for the consumer.
* Speaking of the iPhone, over 50 MILLION have been sold thus far. All you can say to that is WOW.
* The App Store has over 185,000 apps on it. No count on how many are actually useful ;-)
* The mobile web. 64% of mobile web traffic takes place on the iPhone. No wonder AT&T has gotten so much bad press in the last 12 months around its network

Now onto the 4th iteration of the OS. First off, it definitely takes visual cues from the iPad. This is not at all surprising, and is in fact very logical in terms of providing a consistent user experience. There are also 1,500 new APIs that are being made available to developers. For the most part, they will fall under seven “Tentpoles:”

Tentpole #1 – Multitasking

Hallelujah! Funny how last March, the folks at Apple were telling us that multitasking was bad for the consumer. We in the enterprise have been waiting for this since the very advent of the iPhone. Interestingly these services are being provided as APIs. The Multitasking Services include:

1. Background Audio – OK, so you can now play audio in the background. Unless we’re talking about audio tutorials, I’m not sure how this is relevant to the enterprise.
2. VoIP – The fact that the new OS can support VoIP in a multitasking fashion is huge. Not surprisingly, Apple showed off the Skype application, but I can think of just a couple of companies (you know…like Cisco, Avaya, Microsoft, Siemens, IBM, just to name a few) that just may get excited at how this can now make Mobile UC on the iPhone real.
3. Background Location – Again, this will have huge potential. The easiest one that came to mind was for contextual wireless expense management. Imagine where you have an IT policy that has been set up by your company that prevents data roaming based upon your GPS locator. This is not new for other platforms, but does bring the iPhone up to par in this context.
4. Push Notifications - This was touched upon so lightly because there wasn’t anything new here really.
5. Local Notifications – The biggest deal I got from this was that it will no longer need to put a strain on the Apple servers (not that they can’t afford to buy a bunch of servers). I’m not sure yet how that will impact users.
6. Task Completion – This has some good potential in my opinion for the field/fleet service sector. Imagine as an insurance adjuster being able to take a picture of the claim, start the upload process and continue filling out the rest of your forms. That’s a nice time saver, I guess.
7. Fast App Switching – What…Versus slow app switching?

What wasn’t touched upon was multi-THREADING. Will applications be able to fully interact with each other? That could eventually pose a problem with application compatibility, or worse viruses and malware. My sense is we’ll all have to keep a close eye on that.

Tentpole #2 -Folders

All I can say is, it’s about the hell time. However the demo does not go into any details on how folders will play out for files vs. applications.

Tentpole #3 – Enhanced eMail

1. More than one Exchange account - This is very nice, although I can think of another company that had done so about a year ago.
2. Threaded conversations – OK, again, nice to have, but nothing earth shattering
3. Fast account switching – See point #2 above
4. Open attachments with applications – Now this has potential. I’m thinking about how productivity application companies such as QuickOffice can certainly use this kind of functionality to their advantage. You have to wonder if there will ever be a Microsoft Office available for the iPhone (doubt it).

Tentpole #4 – iBooks

I must admit to you that I’m not an avid reader of books. Sometimes, I’ll go back and read a classic that I haven’t looked at since my university days, but beyond that, I read enough during the day. When I want to relax and read, then I go open my beloved Economist magazine.

But now, onto the good stuff…..

Tentpole #5 – Enterprise Features

And at 10:43, some words I have been waiting to hear for ages:

1. Even better data protection – Well, frankly that’s not hard to say
2. Mobile device management – No details provided
3. Wireless app distribution – Again, little to now details
4. Multiple exchange accounts (we talked about this earlier)
5. Exchange Server 2010 - OK, this is good, but will the new OS support more of the built-in policies? The challenge though comes from Point #4. If you have more than one Exchange account, which one governs the device?
6. SSL VPN support – Uhm….OK. I’m not a security expert.

But at 10:46 they were on to the next Tentpole. Three whopping minutes spent on Enterprise features. Not surprising in one respect given the audience, but to have just glossed over such important topics makes me wonder how deep the improvements are actually going to be. Now mind you, I have heard that some of the data protection improvements are very large improvements, but I can’t speak to those yet.
Tentpole #6 – Game Center

I am behind the times and don’t know anything about games since the days of “Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, B, A, START” (kudos to you if you know what I am referring to)
Tentpole #7 – iAd

We all knew it was coming. The Toy Story 3 and Michael Jordan demos were rather impressive. I’ll admit that I also liked the not so thinly veiled dig to Adobe with the comment on it all being done in HTML5. While I am not a fan of mobile advertising, I do see a very interesting opportunity for B2C applications…or perhaps even B2B2C applications coming down the pike.

The Target example is very much along the lines of what I was thinking. Imagine being able to create your own application that will then be able to sense your location, as well as the current inventories you have in your stores and provide you advertisements or mobile coupons on the fly.
Availability

Not surprisingly, this will be available in the summer. And at 11:02 am PDT, my device became all but obsolete….especially in the enterprise. How do you ask? The iPhone 3G will not support multitasking. I’m not sure I understand what hardware specifications are different in 3GS and 3G that would prevent it (I guess it’s not powerful enough). Candidly, this feels more like a way to get people and their companies to go spend money on new devices…maybe even a iPhone 4G should that be announced soon.

So all in all a mixed bag. There are some certainly welcome additions to the iPhone OS by throwing out so many buzzwords in the three minutes that made up Tentpole #5. However, with all things, the devil is in the details and I am sure we’ll learn more soon enough.

Don't forget, if you need to manage a large scale trial or deployment of iPhone or iPad, www.mobileiron.co.uk can assist in the provisioning, security and ongoing management of your estate as well as supporting other Smartphones such as Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, PalmPre & Android.

Are you excited about iPhone OS 4.0? Sound off in the comments.

Original Article - http://theemf.org/2010/04/08/iphone-os-4-0-the-enterprise-mobility-perspective/

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Is the iPad viable as an Enterprise business tool ?

The iPad is getting a reputation as being good for many things — media consumption, mobile messaging and games — to name a few.

It certainly does all of those things but even before getting my hands on one I started thinking about the iPad in the enterprise. Not so much as a laptop replacement for the workforce, but as a specialized tool for certain functions that I believe the iPad would be good at doing.

After using the iPad for a few days (I wish!), I am more convinced than ever that there is a place in big companies to take advantage of the special features of the device. I can see customer support employees using special apps to fill out forms as they deal with customers on the phone. The touch interface could be leveraged to good effect doing this, as many support departments operate with “scripts” written to handle problems over the phone.

The iPad is perfect for this type of repetitive data entry with the proper app running the show. The on-screen keyboard is adequate for the short data entries that don’t fit a scripted mode, while common entries can be programmed to mere button taps. The iPad is perfect for this, with only a light development effort needed to bring common tasks like this to life as an app.

I really believe that IT support staff can use the iPad to troubleshoot employee computer problems. I have spoken to many who do this for a living and they are already using LogMeIn on the iPhone to fix computer problems remotely. Throw in the larger screen of the iPad and this method is an outstanding way to provide this type of support.

Yesterday I ran some errands and found myself in a Target store picking up some items. I carried the iPad in a little case, along with the MiFi for 3G connectivity, just in case. I decided to get a coffee in the Starbucks in the Target, and I sat down to enjoy the drink. I hit the button on the MiFi, and pulled out the iPad to kill some time.

I was having fun in the Starbucks, surfing the web on the iPad, when I remembered I forgot to run a system scan for malware on the ThinkPad back in the home office. I started LogMeIn Ignition (as shown in my video) and logged into the ThinkPad on the iPad. I fired up Microsoft Security Essentials and instigated a full system scan on the ThinkPad. Once that started I logged off and continued my web surfing on the iPad. The system scan was running on the ThinkPad in the office while I was sitting in Starbucks enjoying my coffee.

One nagging question in everyone's mind is "How do we deploy, secure and manages these devices in the field?". MobileIron's Smartphone Device Management platform (distributed in the UK by Cloud Distribution) is able to support iPad out of the box as well as iPhone, WM, Symbian, Android and Blackberry.

I’d love to hear your opinions on the iPad in the workplace. Can you see functions in your company that would be performed well with the iPad? Share it in the comments.

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RipCode Enables Clientless Adobe Flash Video on Apple iPad

RipCode, Inc., the leader in transactional transcoding, announced today its newest product, the TransAct Transcoder V6 can intercept Adobe Flash-based file or live video requests and convert them to a container, video codec, and audio codec accepted by Apple Inc.'s new iPad - all transparently to the end user device and without the need for any pre-transcoding or device-based client.

The iPad is poised to further accelerate and expand the mobile video device market just as the iPhone has over the last several years. However, one of its noted shortcomings has been Apple's lack of support for Flash video playback, given the dominant position of Flash in professionally generated entertainment, sports and news content. HTML5 has been purported to address this dilemma by introducing Apple device applications that are simply 'thin clients' communicating back to a web site hosting and subsequently delivering Flash files without a device-based player, but HTML5 is not yet widely adopted. RipCode's Transactional Transcoding platform enables an alternate and immediate solution to this issue, opening up video content to users without requiring the content hoster to move to HTML5 or pre-transcode entire video libraries from Flash to an iPad-accepted container format. By transcoding the content 'in the cloud', it is essentially analogous to a network-based Flash to MP4 or MPEG-TS video adaption layer.

"Transcoding is an integral part of any volume-based video preparation and delivery infrastructure. With new codecs, devices, resolutions, delivery protocols, rights management controls, and monetization needs constantly evolving the video delivery landscape, this space will continue to churn for many years," stated Brendon Mills, CEO of RipCode. "The 'Flash on iPad' dilemma is really just the latest in a long line of speed bumps on the road towards 'any-content, any-time, any-place, any-device' that we all desire. Fortunately, our technology removes this barrier in a way that is attractive to content hosters, a key device manufacturer, a key video player provider, and the end user alike."

RipCode's V6 transcoding appliance is equipped with industry-leading transcoding flexibility (file-to-file, file-to-stream, stream-to-stream, stream-to-file, and RipCode's On-Demand Transcoding), codec and container flexibility, concurrency, video processing functions, and resolutions ranging from QVGA to 1080i/p. Further, the V6 supports a rich suite of integrated video delivery options including QuickTime, MP4 Progressive Download, Apple's MPEG-TS Adaptive Progressive Download for file-based and live content, Microsoft Smooth Streaming, and RTSP. It is easily integrated - as hardware or software - into any content hosting/delivery operation given its Linux/Intel processing core. Working in conjunction with RipCode's Commander and Detector, content requests from an iPad is automatically detected, which launches an intelligent content transcoding workflow that re-encodes a Flash file to one of the aforementioned iPad-accepted formats, and then delivers either via MP4 Progressive Download or Apple's MPEG-TS Adaptive Progressive Download.

RipCode will be demonstrating this capability for both live and video on demand applications at NAB 2010 this week in Las Vegas. Please access http://www.ripcode.com/nab/ to arrange an appointment to visit our suite at the Hilton, adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center.

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Ten Ways to Convince Your Boss You Need an iPad

1. You will end up doing more work... Sitting on the couch at home, in the stands at the kids ball game, checking in from vacation...

2. You will be more productive. Even at work you will get more done while your PC is rebooting, roaming the building(s), during lunch...

3. With Citrix Receiver you will have access to all the apps you need to do work from anywhere.

4. If you're an IT Admin you can get to any server admin console and fix any issues wherever, whenever.

5. You need to learn how to support the iPad before all the exec's get an iPad and demand IT support.

6. You need to test the iPad for security issues and recommend an implementation that meets the company compliance requirements.

7. Instead of a 2nd , 3rd ( or 4th ) display, you can also use an iPad while docked and set to a real-time dashboard app to monitor.

8. You will have a record of all the notes and tasks you take at meeting vs the paper notebook full of scribbles that you don't go back to.

9. If you're in sales you will be more effective at selling and closing deals. Any product demo will always be at your fingertips, pull it up and hand it to a prospect. You will always know if your product is in stock and have access to information to answer any question.

10. You won't be risking company assets or IP if you lose the iPad.

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MobileMe gains Find My iPad, Remote Wipe features for iPad

Apple has extended its popular "Find My iPhone" service to the iPad with its just-announced iPad-friendly features in MobileMe.

Not only will you be able to find your lost iPad, but iPads will also inherit the iPhone's remote wipe capabilities as well as a number of other features carried over from MobileMe.

The new "Find My iPad" will work on both WiFi and 3G-enabled iPads, though it goes without saying that the WiFi-only version will only be findable while connected to a WiFi network. Like Find My iPhone, users can log into MobileMe to see the approximate location of their iPads and even send a message down to it along with a sound to help you (or a friendly passerby) locate the device. As many iPhone owners have discovered, this feature has been a life-saver for travelers and the absent-minded alike, so it's certainly cool that it's now part of the iPad experience as well.

Apple's MobileMe tweaks also include Remote Wipe for iPad. Just like on the iPhone, you can now wipe your sensitive data (notes, e-mails, etc.) from a lost iPad by going through MobileMe, which can be restored later from a backup on your computer. And, of course, MobileMe's other cloud-friendly features also apply here, including bookmark sync, contact sync, and e-mail sync.

With so many people managing one or more computers, one or more phones, and a tablet device in their lives, services like this can be really helpful. And, if you're an iPhone user, the Find My iPhone/iPad and Remote Wipe services will work for both your iPhone and your iPad. Is MobileMe worth the $99/year subscription yet?

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Managing iPad Security Weaknesses

Apple is like the Disney of technology--always adding a dash of "magic" to its products. Apple has an established base of dedicated fans of the user experience on its various Mac OS X products, and it has had the Midas touch when it comes to portable devices like the iPod, and the iPhone. However, Apple still needs to come up with a spell that wards off evil spirits.

The debate over which operating system is more secure always evokes passionate responses from both sides, but the reality is that Mac OS X does not offer target valuable enough for malware developers to invest time and effort attacking it. The Mac OS X platform is not widely used in business--Mac OS X only makes up about five percent of the total operating system market.

However, the success of the iPhone, and projected success of the iPad put those devices much higher on the market share food chain. The iPhone has captured the number two spot for smartphone market share with just over 25 percent, and analysts estimate that Apple could ship 10 million iPads by the end of 2010. Now, that is a target that attracts some attention.

"The general consensus is that Apple continues to do only the absolute minimum to address enterprise security and supportability requirements," noted Andrew Storms, Director of Security Operations for nCircle. "We haven't seen any new enterprise iPhone security features from Apple since the summer of 2009 when they introduced their new hardware level encryption, which was almost immediately subverted. This is not the kind of behavior security professionals want to see in vendors."

Recent events seem to illustrate that point. Security researches were able to compromise a fully-updated iPhone 3GS at the recent CanSecWest Pwn2Own competition. Storms warned me "If the iPad has the same OS as the iPhone then enterprises are going to be even more concerned about the data on this device."

The interesting thing about the iPhone hack, though, is that it leveraged weaknesses in the Safari Mobile browser to subvert the OS. Another security researcher has also been able to hack a fully-patched Mac OS X system in a matter of minutes the past two years by exploiting the Safari Web browser. It seems that Apple's Web browser is a bit of an Achilles heel for Apple devices.

Quicktime is another Apple proprietary technology that may represent a weakness in the security of Apple devices. Storms explains "QuickTime is Apple's answer to online media viewing, and it seems to have an above average share of security problems. There were 9 QuickTime bugs in this week's update."

Obviously, this does not bode well for the upcoming iPad launch. The iPad, like the iPhone, is built on the same OS platform and will rely on Apple proprietary applications for online media viewing and Web surfing. The security ramifications for users will be huge.

The iPad represents a more serious concern, though, because it will be used in more notebook-like fashion. The iPhone is capable of acting as a handheld micro computer, but the small display makes it impractical. Surveys have shown that a majority of those interested in the iPad want the device for business-related functions more than as a media gadget.

It is important for businesses to establish ground rules for the use of devices like the iPad, and to develop policies and procedures that take the security limitations of the device into consideration and adequately protect sensitive business data.

A recent survey conducted by nCircle found that 58 percent of the respondents have a corporate smartphone security policy in place, and 65 percent of those have measures in place to enforce it.

Storms points out "The good news from this survey is that a greater number of companies are starting to understand the security ramifications of mobile devices. It is encouraging that a majority of companies have a smartphone security policy and enforce it."

Obviously, 100 percent is better than 58, but we have to start somewhere. The new challenge, aside from increasing awareness to get more companies to understand the security implications of mobile devices, is to figure out whether the iPad is a smartphone on steroids or a notebook on a diet and develop the appropriate security policies to manage it as well.

Tony Bradley is co-author of Unified Communications for Dummies . He tweets as @Tony_BradleyPCW . You can follow him on his Facebook page , or contact him by email at tony_bradley@pcworld.com.