Many businesses use the iPhone in their business. With the release of the new iPad, we think there are many applications that if specialized for the iPad, could make Apple’s new tablet a valuable asset for small businesses. We are currently developing our own iPad application, which we think would be a great way to view, organize, and search your documents with the new iPad.
Though the iPhone is designed more like a consumer good than a business tool, the personality of the device didn’t hinder app developers from making a boatload of iPhone apps that make life around the office easier.
All the great business iPhone apps can be downloaded to the iPad, but the iPad will just be a big iPhone until app developers start taking those iPhone business apps and making versions specifically for the iPad. Here is a list of business-focused iPhone apps that we would like to see made into full blown iPad versions.
FreshBooks (Billing and Finance)
We love FreshBooks for our online billing and invoicing, so obviously we would love to see the FreshBooks application on the iPad. Paired with the slick multi-touch features of the iPad, online billing would never be easier or more fun.
Zoho CRM (Customer Relations)
We use Zoho CRM to keep track of all of our customers and leads. If you were taking your office to go with an iPad, you would want to keeps tabs of all of your customers, and react quickly to any questions or problems. Thought the Zoho team is just working on an iPhone app currently, we would really like to see that functionality ported to an iPad-specific application.
iWork & Keynote (Production)
The Apple equivalent of Microsoft Office, iWork will allow you to word process, make spreadsheets, and put together striking presentation with Keynote (Powerpoint for Mac). This application will be made to fully utilize the multi-touch features of the iPad, and will also be compatible with Microsoft-created documents.
WordPress (Blogging)
As you can see, we like to keep our company blog active and up-to-date. The WordPress iPhone app lets us manage our blog from anywhere, and an iPad app would make blogging on the go even easier. Benefits would include the large display and full touch screen keyboard for added convenience.
Chartbeat (Analytics)
What better way to watch over your site’s analytics than on the rich graphical display of the iPad. With the chartbeat iPhone app you access your Google analytics account, and get real-time alerts on stats like average page views, uniques, and sources to see when you’re site is getting hit, and when you’re falling behind.
Those are the business apps we’d like to see on the iPad. iWork and Keynote are already available, and we hope that the iPhone apps mentioned roll out iPad equivalents.