iPad for Business Round-Up: Tom’s Planner, Building Apps from InDesign Files and More

The iPad isn’t just a hot new consumer device, it’s also an increasingly popular tool for business. Each week we take a look at the new or updated business apps for the iPad, and highlight trends in how tablets are being used in the enterprise.

This week week we look at a new way of building iPad apps with Adobe InDesign, an iOS optimized version of Tom’s Planner, the ways tablets are changing e-commerce and the state of Apple in the enterprise.

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Tom’s Planner

Tom’s Planner is a popular software-as-a-service for project scheduling. It lets users create and share Gantt charts, or import them Microsoft Project or Excel. It’s not as advanced as Project, but is much easier to use. This week it added support for iPads and iPhones.

The company boasts users from Asus, Dell, NASA, Oracle and more.

PadMan

PadMan is a plugin for Adobe InDesign for creating iPad apps from InDesign files. Adobe itself offers a similar application, but PadMan claims to be the only solution that offers native text in its applications. In addition to the plugin, PadMan has an iPad simulator and an App Store submission service.

PadMan apps can include video, JavaScript animation and slideshows. It’s free to try – it only costs money to submit apps to the Apple App Store. Prices start at €790.00.

Mobile E-Commerce Update

This week an app called Catalog Spree was released. It connects consumers with catalogs for various types of products. What’s interesting here is the way that tablets are changing the shopping experience. Catalog Spree’s representatives point to the fact that Ikea sends 175 copies of its dead-tree catalog to customers, and these catalogs make-up 70% of the company’s marketing. There are 20 billion catalogs mailed annually in the U.S. Catalog Spree is a step towards digitizing the catalog experience.

This week Performics announced the results of a study on mobile Web users. The company found that most respondents use the mobile Web to find retailers and research purchases. More significantly, 49% had made a purchase using their mobile device.

Good Data Report

As we reported earlier in the week, Good Technology has released its quarterly report on new enterprise activations of mobile devices. Good sees iPads dominating the mobile enterprise space.

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