Sam Chatterjee, hub manager at the Telecom Business Hub - Manukau says the size difference makes a smartphone a "notification device" compared to tablets, which are fully fledged business tools. Especially, says Chatterjee when the tablet is hooked up to an external Bluetooth keyboard.
He cites the example of clients who spend a lot of time on flights. They may download their email to a smartphone before they get on board, but only reply to the most urgent messages. With a tablet and keyboard, they can catch up with all their email offline during the flight.
The size question also arises when it comes to presenting files to colleagues, clients and others. Whilst it may be nigh impossible to use a smartphone to show a PowerPoint presentation to a group, a tablet is just big enough to do so. Either, of course, can be used to project to a TV, monitor, or audio visual system.
There are some professions where a tablet blows a smartphone out of the water. They include designers, architects and real estate agents who want to present high definition images, videos, drawings and other visual selling aids, says Chatterjee.
Property manager Chris Doughty of DL Property Management Limited, is a great fan of his iPhone 4s and iPad 3. The two devices he says have very different uses in the property management business.
Doughty and his 12 staff members use their iPhones to record information about rental properties and their iPads to display information. By that he means that the iPhones are the perfect devices for photographing and videoing properties for rent - or for recording inspections. They're too small, however, for accessing the company's Christchurch-based server.
"The single biggest difference for us is the size of the screen on the iPad," says Doughty. The iPads are loaded with a remote access app, which allows both him and the property managers to log into the company's Windows-based property management software application from anywhere. That's useful because the business is totally mobile and doesn't have an office.
Doughty says the iPad's bigger screen allows managers to show potential tenants photographs and video "walk throughs" of other properties available through DL Property Management. When managing an existing tenancy it also allows them to access data such as a payments spread sheet and contact details.
As well as the technological advantages of iPads over smartphones, Doughty is always aware of health and safety drawbacks of doing a lot of work on an iPhone, PC or Mac. "For reasons of your eyesight you shouldn't use (certain) apps on your iPhone. It is better to look at that information on a bigger screen."
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