Five Reasons You Should Give Everyone An iPad!

by Mike Mulvihill

My favorite Christmas poem is the classic ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore. Well, this year Santa came down the chimney with care early at my company (CRT/tanaka) in the form of iPads for all.

While this is a holiday present to all 70+ client-facing staffers, it was important that we announced the gift back before Thanksgiving. Why?  The iPad is this season’s hot gift item, and somehow the second iPad for free wouldn’t be nearly as appreciated after the first purchased as a present. In fact, analysts predict Apple will ship 5.5 million iPads this fourth quarter with the vast majority of those sales coming in mid-to-late December for the holidays. (Apple should ship its 10 millionth iPad since the April launch any day now!)

While a simple Google search will produce a bounty of posts on the technical merits and faults of the iPad along with posits on why you should or shouldn’t buy an iPad,  here’s a layman’s perspective on why giving iPads to our staff makes perfect business sense.

1. Talking the Talk – As a public relations company, we recommend and execute new media and social media programs for our clients every day.  An account team walking into a client meeting toting iPads immediately says we’re on top of our game. They’re way cool and instill confidence in our teams and from our clients.
2. Walking the Walk – Among other things, the iPad is an awesome Internet access device – anytime, anywhere. (Granted, for 3G versions, I’m giving AT&T the benefit of the doubt here). We can immediately interact with the brand, pull up research, search recent activity, present graphics, review social media activity and, generally, keep track of all the current and breaking information we need. It is a great tool for any client service/professional services entity that enhances effectiveness and productivity for a relativity affordable price. (BTW, we made both WiFi and 3G versions available to staff.)
3. Staff Morale – I have been in agency senior management for over a decade now, and this gift had as much of a positive impact on staff as even the largest bonus we ever distributed – at a fraction of the cost. (It should be noted, that the iPad gift is not in lieu of a bonus payout. We’re doing that, too.) 
4. Travel – Our business requires a lot of travel for our staff and the iPad will serve a dual purpose of providing personal entertainment via books, movies, music, etc.  It’s a much more manageably- sized device with easy WiFi access on planes and in meetings.  It will really enhance how our people conduct business and make the demands of business travel a little less cumbersome with its big screen and 10 hour battery life.  (So it still has plenty of oomph left after a New York to L.A. flight, which is more than I can say for my lap top.)
5. Readability and Share-ability – The iPad screen clarity and size makes it perfect for sharing information with others versus pulling out a bulky laptop/notebook or handing someone your screen-envy prone iPhone or Blackberry. The user-friendly nature and size make it a perfect social tool for professional and personal use.

Those are basically the key factors that influenced our decision. So this year there are iPads for all, and to all a good night.

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