FEBRUARY 2013 |www.opp-connect.com WORDS | John Howell


FEATURE


TECHNOLOGY | 23 Time to lose weight?


Some of us are getting a bit fed up with lugging laptops around – especially in situations where weight matters. It can’t have escaped your notice that there are now other options – from Android smart phones to Apple’s iPad. But is it worth making the switch from your familiar device? Our editor John Howell takes a brief look at the benefi ts and downfalls of smaller screens and mobile devices. So is less more, or is it... well, less?


A


ll estate agents do a lot of travelling. Even if you work in only one town, you will spend a lot of time out of the offi ce visiting houses and clients. If you work internationally you may do a great deal of travelling all over the world. In this case you may already have discovered the problem that an increasing number of airlines will allow you a carry on weight allowance of only 5 or 6 kilos. The average briefcase, with a full size laptop computer, a camera, a few papers and all the other stuff you have to carry around with you probably weighs 12 kilos. Mine weighed 10, check yours.


If you have been asked to put your laptop – or your whole briefcase – into your checked baggage you will have given some serious thought into how to reduce your travelling weight. Even if you haven’t, wouldn’t it be nice to travel around with a small, light briefcase?


For some years now, there have been lightweight solutions but they have usually been expensive or feeble in power. For example my little Sony laptop – which is powerful enough to do everything I need including editing video and desktop publishing the magazine and which weighs well under 1 kilo – costs about USD $3,000 but netbooks, which weigh only a little more were so low powered that they really never took off as a concept. Times are changing and the travelling estate agent now has a range of choices that will allow him or her to do their job without building up their arm muscles.


One of the options – in a sense, the safe but defi nitely less interesting option – is to opt for one of the new range of Ultrabooks or the Apple equivalents. These fairly lightweight computers (think 1.5 kilos/3 lbs) will run all of your software. Yet that software itself is still “heavyweight” and expensive – full of features you seldom use.


Over the last few years we have discovered that tiny, lightweight Apps can perform really useful tasks on our mobile phones and the runaway success of the Apple iPad ® and other tablet computers suggests that many people have been seduced by the concept of an


ultra portable device. Its not just kids playing games. At every conference and at every business hotel you will see serious people using their iPads to do serious work. The numbers are growing quickly.


I guess that what has sold the concept has been a combination of their relatively low cost, the fact that they will do quite a lot of internet based things better than your laptop (however small and light), and some very clever marketing by Apple that makes them seem very cool. Yet the iPad and similar tablets have a number of problems for the travelling professional.


One of the problems is that they are too heavy. There is little saving in weight compared with a small laptop computer, which is much more powerful and capable of running the


software with which you are already familiar. Apart from looking cool, there is little benefi t in making the move. The other problem is the software. Despite the vast number of Apps available at little or no cost, they lack the ability to perform quite a lot of fairly basic business tasks. Or do they? Have the recent arrivals at the AppStore made it practical to use your iPad to run your business?


Many of the agents I speak to, particularly the US agents tell me that it is possible. It needs a few changes to the way in which you do business but those changes are usually changes that actually make your business more effi cient and less costly to run. Now is the time to fi nd out whether


they are correct. Why? Because the new iPad mini and other similar, small form factor tablets could well change the


game. They are so light and so portable that you really do not think twice about taking the device with you wherever you go. About 300 grams or less than 10 ounces! Better still they cost less than USD $400 for the basic model – though, as ever, the British are being ripped off by being charged quite a lot more but it is still less than GBP £400.


So can you run your business from an iPad mini? Is the screen just too small? Do the Apps work well enough? Of course, you won’t be able to carry out all of your back offi ce activities using iPad minis. I can’t see your graphic designer design your


“iPhone Apps lack the ability to perform quite a lot of basic business tasks. Or do they?”


brochures or your accounts department processing all of your fi nancial records on these devices but can you carry your functions as a working estate agent and the manager of the business on this device that weighs less than a cup of coffee? We thought we would fi nd out. Over the next few months we will be bringing you reports from the frontline and reviewing some of the software that might be able to help you.


The future | What will turn out to be the ideal size for a working screen?


If you are interested in taking part in this experiment by telling us how you are using these machines, by telling us about Apps that you fi nd useful (or useless) or (if you are a software supplier) by telling us about how your software can help, please let me know at john.howell@opp-connect.com. We will be putting up an iPad mini forum on OPP Connect so that you can exchange ideas or simply tell us that we are mad for even trying to do this. At the moment, it looks like the future is mobile. Retailers tell us that the percentage of the sales they make online that come from mobile devices is going through the roof and property search engines tell us 1 in 3 property searches are now carried out from a mobile device (Rightmove: November 2012). Is now the time for estate agents also to free themselves from their desktops?


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