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Apple Launches Email Ad Campaign Focusing on Productivity

Monday August 11, 2014 3:23 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today began a new email ad campaign drawing customer attention to the iPad's productivity capabilities by highlighting several different Business-oriented apps for the tablet, including Pages, Numbers, Keynote and Microsoft's Office apps for iPad.
iPad is the perfect way to be more productive than ever. Its powerful apps are designed to take full advantage of the things only iPad can do. So you'll have everything you need to do what matters most.
The email advertises how customers can create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with Apple's own iWork software, available for free with every new iPad, and it also points towards Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which were released for the iPad in March.

productivityapps
Competitors like Microsoft and Samsung have launched aggressive ad campaigns attempting to position the iPad as a content consumption device without the multitasking capabilities or the software to allow it to serve as a true PC replacement, but Apple has fired back in recent months with an equally aggressive "Your Verse" iPad campaign that shows the iPad being used in hundreds of different ways for a variety of vital tasks that range from composing to choreographing to mountaineering.

Microsoft used the lack of Office software on the iPad as a main advertising point for its Surface tablets throughout 2013, before releasing an iPad version of the productivity software earlier this year. Microsoft has actually seen enormous success with Office for iPad, garnering 35 million downloads as of July, suggesting millions of customers are using their iPads for productivity-oriented tasks like creating documents and presentations.

In addition to sending out emails, Apple launched a promotion for several different productivity apps in the App Store last week, offering discounts on apps like Fantastical, Clear, Notability, Scanner Pro, and more. That sale lasts until August 14.

The company has also been continuing to expand its "Your Verse" advertising campaign, releasing two new stories earlier this morning highlighting Chinese electropop group Yaoband and Detroit Slow Roll city bike ride cofounder and organizer Jason Hall.

Apple's focus on productivity comes just weeks after the company inked a deal with IBM that will see the two companies teaming up to push for more iPads in enterprise environments.
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Art0fLife
54 months ago
If I want to be productive I'll buy a laptop. There's exactly nothing productive about an iPad/tablet. It's inferior in every way that matters to MacBook, it's not nearly as good for taking photos as even an iPhone, it's way less portable than an iPhone, no more portable than my MacBook, offers little battery advantage if any, to the MacBook, has worse App developer support than the iPhone or MacBook, it's worse to type on than either an iPhone or MacBook... I mean, it's just big enough compared to an iPhone that it's uncomfortable to type on, and neither can dream of comparing to an actual keyboard... I guess you can buy the docks and all, but then why not just by what you're essentially turning the tablet into? *cough* laptop *cough*. Exactly what is more productive about it, again? :rolleyes:

We have an iPad and it's okayish to use for reading emails (not replying), doing light browsing, watching videos where sound quality isn't a concern, playing some games... But that's about where it's usefulness ends. Why are they always trying to shove tablets down people's throats pretending they can even compare to an actual computer? I'll agree, the iPad is the best tablet out there, but tablets are just about as weak in the "I can actually use this for something" department as you can get.
Rating: 13 Votes
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Radio
54 months ago
iPads are about consumption.

Productivity ? That's a stretch.
Rating: 11 Votes
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El Hikaru
54 months ago
I still cannot figure out how to produce something with my ipad.
If you produce something with iPad, please tell everyone what are you producing.
Rating: 11 Votes
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afsnyder
54 months ago

i could get a surface if i wanted productivity


Yes you could... you could also buy a laptop. But you could also buy an iPad... that's the whole point. :confused:
Rating: 10 Votes
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leroypants
54 months ago
The stench of desperation is overwhelming.
Rating: 6 Votes
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lincolntran
54 months ago

I've created and maintain several office style documents using just my iPad. Nothing extremely fancy but they are useful and agent the job done. It serves as a decent video editor too.

I'm not saying the iPad is some office rich powerhouse but let's not act like it's just a gaming device with a calendar either. You can do quite a lot with it if you choose to.


When talking about "productivity " ppl immediately think about making ms office documents. It's not just that!!! There're a lots more to productivity like making orders through websites, inventory, conferences, meetings , etc...
Rating: 5 Votes
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s2mikey
54 months ago

I still cannot figure out how to produce something with my ipad.
If you produce something with iPad, please tell everyone what are you producing.


I've created and maintain several office style documents using just my iPad. Nothing extremely fancy but they are useful and agent the job done. It serves as a decent video editor too.

I'm not saying the iPad is some office rich powerhouse but let's not act like it's just a gaming device with a calendar either. You can do quite a lot with it if you choose to.
Rating: 4 Votes
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myrtlebee
54 months ago
I love my iPad, but I've tried it for productivity and it's not for me in that department. I find it much more efficient to word process on an iMac or Macbook (even with a bluetooth keyboard) and to sketch and take notes on paper. Youtube, casual browsing, and games -- to me that's what the iPad is for, and at that it excels and is a pleasure to use, especially at night in bed.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Telp
54 months ago

You must have far more time than the average person for your work. It is so inefficient for almost all of that (especially without basically turning it into a laptop) that it is far from productive. I'd be so tight on timelines from the lack of physical keyboard (and very poor size/layout for typing on it digitally) to make it useful at all for anything other than simply reading or making very minor adjustments. I guess I should adjust my phrasing. It's maybe possible if you REALLY work hard to force it to be and have a lot of time to do it, but it's nowhere near as productive or efficient as a laptop.

By poor man's laptop, I meant not just the cost, but it's lack of power, true multitasking, internal hard drive space, and a near endless list of other important areas it's lacking for an actual work rig. It's nowhere near as good as the iPhone for the mobile part. It's nowhere near as good as the laptop for the actual productivity stuff. It's in that middle area of "fun toy if you have the money for it". Tablets are the "El Caminos" of computing. They are effectively useless as a car for transport, and worse than useless as a truck for actual work. Just something fun to **** around with if you have the money and desire to play with it.



So in other words, the iPad isn't good at anything except putzing around with? That's a far statement from, it's good at consumption, but bad at production. Now it's not really good at consumption either but damn does it look cool. Well alright then.

I think it's a fair statement that not everybody could use it as a productivity tool. I would not want to write a novel on an iPad without a bluetooth keyboard, and when I need to do more powerful programming and editing, I definitely switch to my MBP. But if you think I had so much time in the day that I was able to force productivity out of it is just incorrect.

I'm sorry you can't seem to do anything with your iPad except show it off, but if I can buy and annotate textbooks on it, take notes on it, do research on it, I count that as being very productive.
Rating: 3 Votes
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KPOM
54 months ago

When someone advertises something as a productive device, it implies that the device can do everything you need to get actual real world work done all by itself. The iPad lacks that in almost every area. It's a good supplement to production, but that's about it. It's not efficient at all. Another critical aspect to "productivity'.

We have one, and I like it for very light casual activity, but a work machine it is most certainly not. Not even nearly.


I disagree. All the ads say are that there are productivity apps on the iPad and that you can be productive on it. It doesn't say that it does everything a Mac or Windows PC does or that it has everything one needs to get everything done. For some people, it might. If all you do is write basic letters, or maintain simple spreadsheets it might well enough. But even if it isn't enough in itself, that doesn't mean there is no value in the productivity that it does offer. Apple has been quite clear for some time that they don't view the tablet and PC as interchangeable. That doesn't mean that there is no overlap. A pickup and a sedan aren't interchangeable., but there is a lot of overlap.

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Minor edits. Not production. Again, as I said, good supplement or toy, but hardly a productivity rig.


Minor edits can be quite "productive." I've used Word and Excel a lot on airplanes. I don't need to be able to write an entire spreadsheet from scratch to be productive. Making "minor edits" is enough to run through a few scenarios. Having PowerPoint and the ability to read and edit notes while presenting and even re-arrange some content on the fly without taking out my notebook is still productive. I'm not going to haul heavy equipment in my sedan but that doesn't mean I won't make a few trips to Home Depot in it.
Rating: 3 Votes

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