Of Pod's And Pad's.....................

Launched on the 27th of January, the I-Pad is the newest product from Apple. It has the same functionality as the I-Phone and I-Pod, so basically it's a bigger version of them! But what is the reasoning behind bringing it to market?


CEO of Apple Steve Jobs said;

“All of us use laptops and smart phones,” said Jobs. “The question has arisen: is there room for a third category of device in the middle? We pondered this question for years. In order to create a new category of devices, those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks.”

The IPad is not just a new product, but a new category, which millions of people around the world will be familiar with due to using IPod's and IPhones.

It will also be a cash cow for developers who will be able to make applications for it which they can sell on Apples App's store, which will also make more revenue for Apple as they will take a percentage of App's sold on the store.
Apple have also announced a new store for the IPad, IBooks, this will be a book store online where you can purchase books from the store and read them, in opposition of the Amazon Kindle or the Sony Reader.


To view the keynote speech by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, watch the video below;



In my opinion I think the IPad is another success for Apple, who are now the biggest mobile device company in the world, although later editions of the IPad should include some of the missing features of the first one, such as USB ports and multitasking.

Google, an eBusiness Leader

As this is my first blog entry I thought it would be fitting to talk about one of the leaders in e-Business, Google. I will give a brief rundown on what Google have brought to the market in the past and I will also talk about the new and upcoming products they are working on.


Starting in 1996, Google began as a search engine, by 2000 it began to show advertisements on its search results pages which were associated with search keywords, this was a large money earner for Google and it’s advertisements now account for over 90% of its revenue. Many websites now include Google advertisements which are revenue generators for not only Google, but for the sites which they are on, I have placed one of these ad’s in my blog which I’m hoping will create some extra revenue for myself!


Over the next few years Google began to buy up small start up companies and other large companies, such as Youtube, in order to develop new products and gain a larger market share. Products such as Gmail, Google Earth, Maps, Street View, Google Chrome, a rival to the Internet explorers of Microsoft and Firefox’s, have all proved to be popular and positive for Google.


Recently, Google launched Google Wave, built into Gmail, it is a collaboration tool which you can use to socialise with friends, or work with colleagues on group projects, etc. Below is a video which shows some basic functions of Wave;



Earlier this month, Google launched its rival social networking product to Facebook, Google Buzz, also built into Gmail, it works with all products in the Google family, such as Twitter and Youtube;



With these new products and more in the pipeline, it seems there is no stopping Google in the race to becoming the market leader in e-business.