So the iPad has arrived, creating with its arrival a new market for devices that are small and easy-to-use enough to avoid carting your laptop around, but more usable than existing mobile devices.  Of course, you can argue that the disadvantages are precisely that you cannot put it in your pocket, and that it isn't as easy to use as a laptop with a proper keyboard and mouse.

That being said, the iPad has a growing set of business applications for it - the Apple App Store is being updated constantly with them.  And some of those are tools to allow business folk on the move to work on their content; the iPad will allow users to edit and view documents and work on them efficiently, given the screen size.

So what about its place in the CMS world?  The iPad of course has a browser, and using that you can access any of the web-based CMS repositories that support it; or (doing a thinly veiled plug here for our product) you can use a purpose-built UI that provides multiple repository access, such as our CARA product which leverages CMIS in order to provide functionality on any repository that supports CMIS - and that list is growing.

One novel planned use of the iPad by one of our pharmaceutical customer just came to our attention: providing a mobile way for FDA auditors to access the company's documents without having to provide additional laptops / PCs, and enabling them to walk around the site while viewing the appropriate content (for example while inspecting labs or production facilities).  It goes without saying that getting executives who are constantly on the move to be able to read and approve content is also a key goal - doing this on a phone has never really been satisfactory.

So it seems that the iPad may fill a niche need that companies didn't realize they had - which is the hallmark of a good product.  Of course, the connectivity issues that early adopters have experienced need to be ironed out, and the market is going to rapidly experience competition from other makers (HP, Google and Nokia to name just a few are on track for that).  It should be an exciting space to watch over the coming months, and may take CMS truly into the realms of the mobile.