Utility

Best of CES 2013 Awards: Best Laptop/Convertible – Lenovo ThinkPad Helix

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Lane Jesseph Posted in Blog, Utility, Windows 8





windows 8 utility blog

Originally posted by LAPTOP

The best mobile products at CES 2013 have much to tell us about the year ahead in tech. Based on what we’ve seen in Las Vegas, 2013 will see many new players enter the mobile gaming space hoping to make Windows gaming portable or Android achieve gaming parity with PCs and consoles. Your smartphone may even end up parking your car.

Now that you can get a watch that measures your heart rate, the market for fitness-enabled wearable technology will continue to explode, while both standalone cameras and hard drives become even more tightly integrated with your smartphone and the Web. LAPTOP’s Best of CES 2013 winners also demonstrate that the most exciting innovations can come from both the largest companies and the scrappiest of startups. Here are our top picks. Read more

3 Big Differences Between Commercial & Consumer Tablets

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Aaron Goldberg Posted in Blog, IT, Security, Utility





The use of tablets in business will skyrocket. And what makes this growth even more amazing is that we haven’t really seen the impact of tablets that are actually designed for commercial use! We have a bunch of consumer devices that have literally invaded the organization. Imagine what’s going to happen when we get tablets that are designed with commercial feature sets that actually appeal to managers and IT professionals.

One trend we have to consider prior to the device issues is who pays for them. The age of company provided tablets is dawning. This means that the focus on lowest possible price will be mitigated, and the focus will change to what is the right configuration and capabilities. Higher cost isn’t necessarily a problem. Yet, what many of us are interested in is how will the device’s features differ between the versions? There’s a lot to talk about on that front. And certainly many points of view as to what the “right” features are. Read more

Order up! Will Tablets Take Over Restaurants?

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Lane Jesseph Posted in Apps, Blog, Tablet Adoption, Utility





Brick-and-Mortar Goes Mobile: Tablets Improve Retail POS

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Sharon Love Posted in Mobility Strategy, Tablet Adoption, Utility





Until recently, the only point-of-sale (POS) option available to retail stores has been the classic register terminal, which remains fixed behind the counter, sometimes forcing long lines and testing customer patience. Not to mention, often the POS technology is often outdated before it’s even set up.

But all that’s changing. Tablets are transforming not only the way retailers process and track payments, but also how they fundamentally interact with their customers.

A recent survey by RIS News found that 32% of its respondents—brick-and-mortar retailers—will begin testing tablets in their stores this year. Even more compelling, 22% have already started testing and 6% currently have a tablet program fully approved and deployed. Joe Skorupa, editor-in-chief at RIS News, simply said this “research reveals that tablet adoption is no longer a question for retailers.” Read more

RELATED RESOURCE
Field Studies: How Tablets Are Transforming Sales & Service Organizations
Could tablets really help your organization improve productivity? This brief discusses real-world examples of how organizations are deploying these mobile devices outside the four walls of the office. Learn how tablets can help your customer service and field sales teams in particular interact more effectively with clients, close deals faster, and reduce administrative work.

Lenovo Launches ThinkPad mPOS Platform

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Lane Jesseph Posted in Blog, IT, Utility





Originally Posted by Kelly Liyakasa, CRM.com

Lenovo and VeriFone Systems have teamed up to launch ThinkPad Mobile POS, a comprehensive mPOS platform designed for retailers, evidence that the mobile point of sale is and will continue to be a strong trend in the consumer market.

Using a custom version of VeriFone’s PAYware Mobile Enterprise for Tablet payment solution, the platform designed for the Lenovo ThinkPad enterprise-class tablet promises a “versatile and secure mobile platform that increases customer transaction speed and helps advance retail shopping to a new level of personal service,” according to Dilip Bhatia, vice president of the ThinkPad business unit at Lenovo.

Underlying the announcement is supporting research from Aberdeen Group’s Retail and Consumer Markets survey, which finds that 57 percent of retailers express a desire to present a more individual and personalized shopping experience in order to positively impact customer profitability. What is driving customer strategy is the “essence of the connected consumer,” notes Sahir Anand, vice president and principal analyst for retail and banking at Aberdeen Group. Things like mobile, social, and cloud will continue to empower the consumer over the next three years. Gartner Research pinned mobile payment transaction volume at $86.1 billion in 2011, up from $48.9 billion in 2010.

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Tablets Drive Trade Show Innovation: 2 Case Examples & 3 Strategies

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Lane Jesseph Posted in Blog, Tablet Adoption, Utility





utility adoption blog

Although the tablet craze began with the iPad in 2010, tablet devices have only recently become an established, mainstream technology, and it started at the 2012 CES. At the event, computer vendors introduced almost 80 different types of tablets or hybrid PC/tablets, most of them suitable for business use. But beyond the product innovation, attendees were able to see tablet devices used in new ways—like on the show floor. Indeed, tablets are ideal tools for both exhibitors and attendees at industry conferences and trade shows. Read more

RELATED RESOURCE
Finding the Right Tablet: A Purchase Checklist
Use this quick reference guide to help find the perfect tablet that balances the features your end users need and want with the controls you need to meet your business objectives.

Mobile Shoppers Want Retailers to Ditch Cash Registers for Tablets

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Lane Jesseph Posted in Blog, Tablet Adoption, Utility





A new report on mobile commerce finds that 22% of smartphone-owning consumers have been to stores where tablets are being used as a point-of-sale (POS) device, with almost six in ten believing that tablet-using retailers are more innovative than those only using cash registers.

The final installment of the Mobile Shopping Survey, a three-part series on smartphone owners’ in-store retail experiences sponsored by AisleBuyer, was unveiled today and unsurprisingly found that 60% of smartphone owners think sales staff would be more useful if they were on the sales floor, rather than being stuck behind a cash register.

The report noted that 57% of respondents think retailers who use tablets and other mobile devices are innovative than those who still only use cash registers, and interestingly found that 41% of these same consumers would rather see retailers replace cash registers with tablets, in order to make room for extra merchandise. The study also tackled mobile payment terms, with almost half (43%) apparently familiar with the mobile payment term ‘mobile wallet’. Conversely, only 12% are said to be familiar with NFC, the acronym for Near Field Communications.

Originally Posted by Doug Drinkwater, TabTimes

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