Apple’s iPad means business.

iPad 2 went on sale March 11 and, whoa, déjà vu. You’d think a little thinner, a little lighter wouldn’t matter much, right? Tell that to the people who snapped up a million of them the first weekend alone. (It took nearly a month for the first iPad to reach a million.) In fact, iPad 2 may become the fastest-selling consumer product in history.

Okay, “consumer product.” But what about for business? Headline: iPad’s for business. Here’s what we’re hearing:

It’s great for salespeople in the field.

Want your people to be totally on their game – for about $500 per rep? Load your next presentation on an iPad and watch what happens to your salespeople – and their customers. You’re right, Steve, it is kinda magical.

Financial services is where more than a third of the action is (almost 37%), with high tech and healthcare right behind, at just over 10% each.¹ Investment Newssays the iPad will change the way investment advice is presented. For financial advisors it’s been “instant love,” mainly because advisors, well, just really enjoy using them for giving advice.²

And iPad is fast becoming a sales-technology category killer in the mutual fund industry. Of all respondents to an Ignites poll, 47% said their firms are either currently using iPads or have plans to add them as a sales tool.³

So whether it’s a pharmaceutical rep detailing a doc, a financial advisor touting investment performance or even a Hyundai salesperson on the showroom floor, the iPad adds that extra element that separates them from the pack. (BTW, buy a new Hyundai Equus and they’ll even give you the iPad.)

It’s great for anyone on the go.

Going to be out of the office? No worries. There are 65,000 iPad-compatible apps to date, and more and more of them are being designed for business, including subscription services. One free app from Citrix enables employees to gain access to corporate programs on their iPads.⁴

Your IT folks may be more enthused than you think.

The mobile operating system has been updated with business-friendly features such as Exchange e-mail, remote-erase capabilities, encryption and secure connections from employees to corporate networks. So the iPad is easy to use, and safe.

Your HR folks may like it too.

Get a few people around an iPad and watch the dynamics. It has an uncanny ability to foster collaboration. And Gartner adds that as long as the iPad is becoming so popular (usually on the user’s nickel), permitting its use is a cheap and effective way to improve recruitment and retention.⁵

Okay, what’s the catch?

Flash: The Animation War.

You still can’t run Flash on either iPad, which includes any Flash-driven website features. (Despite what you may have heard recently, “Wallaby” is not ready for prime time.) And PowerPoint needs to be converted to Keynote, an Apple program. So be prepared, as Jason Hiner on ZDNet puts it, to be imprisoned in the Apple ecosystem. He adds, however, “Apple is making strides to accommodate iPad deployment scenarios in business.”⁶ Future accommodations aside, we still think the many advantages today override the limitations.

So what does it mean for you?

If your salespeople are giving presentations face to face, we see no reason not to use iPads. Initial investment in hardware is reasonable, and even without Flash and PowerPoint, your people can make a great impression. And video looks pretty terrific.

Of course, you’re going to need content – and that’s where we come in. We were out with a client sales presentation two months after the original iPad launched – and haven’t slowed down since. Let’s talk about how the iPad can transform the way you sell.

¹ © 2010 CBS Interactive
² © 2011 Crain Communications, Inc.
³ © 2010 Media-Money, Inc.
⁴ © 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
⁵ © 2010 Gartner, Inc.
⁶ © 2010 CBS Interactive