Over the past two months, I’ve run what I consider an interesting experiment with my Twitter and Google+ followers: I’ve asked them what their favorite iPad apps were, and noted down the results. More specifically, back in May I asked my Twitter followers what their “5 must-have” iPad apps were. That question included all the possible categories of the App Store, free and paid apps, universal and iPad-only apps – literally anything that could run natively on the iPad. I received dozens of replies, saved the results as “votes” in Evernote, and filed the note away for future usage. Then on July 13th, I asked about “top productivity apps” on Google+. This second poll was more specific: whereas the first one was just a matter of personal preference for any category and app type, the Google+ poll implied that people had to decide what they considered “productive” on the iPad. And because I was asking people, and not a computer-generated algorithm, the results of what people considered as “productive” were noteworthy. I waited a few days, saved the replies as votes, and created another note in Evernote.
The results are listed below but before you jump after the break, a disclaimer: by no means this is an official “poll” or “survey” – it’s just the results of two questions I asked with my personal accounts on Twitter and Google+. I don’t know each person that follows me on these social networks, but if I had to guess – I’d say they’re mostly geeks passionate about great apps and new software. For this reason the demographic of these polls is pretty much restricted to a certain category of App Store users – those who spend time browsing for new apps, care about the quality of design and, when possible, like solutions that are available cross-platform on the Mac and iOS.
That said, check out the Top Productivity Apps and Must-Have iPad Apps after the break.
Top Productivity apps (Google+ poll July 2011)
- Evernote: 14
- OmniFocus: 12
- Dropbox: 12
- Reeder: 11
- GoodReader: 9
- IA Writer: 6
- Pages: 6
- Simplenote: 5
- Instapaper: 4
- Things: 3
- Wunderlist: 3
- Twitter: 3
- DisplayPad: 3
- PlainText: 3
“Must-Have” iPad apps (Twitter poll May 2011)
- Reeder: 25
- Instapaper: 24
- Twitter: 18
- OmniFocus: 11
- Flipboard: 11
- Twitterrific: 8
- Simplenote: 6
- Dropbox: 5
- Zite: 4
- Evernote: 4
- 1Password: 4
- GoodReader: 4
Other Productivity apps (two votes or less)
- iBooks
- Writing Kit
- OmniOutliner
- Screens
- Penultimate
- iCab
- WriteRoom
- Terra
- CloudCalendar
- Articles
- Twitterrific
- ComicZeal
- Photosync
- Filterstorm Pro
- Soulver
- TextExpander
- Notely
- Numbers
- Note & Share
- Tweetings
- iStudiez
- Mindnode
- AppShopper
- IM+ Pro
- Liveview Screencaster
- Notability
- CameraSync
- Wikipanion+
- LogMeIn
- vSphere
- PocketCloud
- iSSH
- FTP On The Go Pro
- QuickOffice
- Due
- Air Video
- Linkinus
- Pocket Informant HD
- iThoughts HD
- iTeleport
- Prompt
- CourseNotes
- Stratus
- Keynote
- IdeaFlight
- Sparks
- FLUD
- SugarSync
- Splashtop
- Noteshelf
- Adobe Ideas
Other “must-have” iPad apps (two votes or less)
- Show You
- Echofon
- OmniOutliner
- PDF Expert
- The Daily
- Safari
- Week Calendar
- UPAD
- Osfoora
- iView
- IMDB
- Alien Blue HD
- Sign+
- Comic Zeal
- Tweetmag
- Things
- Air Display
- Newsrack
- Scanner Pro
- Carcassonne
- iBooks
- Marvel Comics
- iCab
- CineXPlayer
- Angry Birds
- Filterstorm Pro
- Plants Vs Zombies
- Infinity Blade
- Documents To Go
- Soulver
- Wunderlist
- Photogene
- We Rule
- IM+
- Plex
- Twittelator
- Awesome Note
- Penultimate
- Blogsy
- Air Video
- iFiles
- Feeder
- Stash Pro
- BeejiveiM
- Pulse
- WordPress
- Soosiz HD
- Kindle
- Pulp
- Textastic
- Netflix
- Hulu
- Articles
- Screens
- Bluenube
- IA Writer
- GarageBand
- iStudiez
- Pandora
- iWork suite
- CourseNotes
- Sword & Sworcery
- Instagallery
I have a few thoughts about these polls. First off, clearly the people that follow me like to install a lot of apps, and switch between similar ones because they want to find the one that “fits” in their workflow. I’ve received tons of replies from people saying “OmniFocus, but also Wunderlist because it looks nice and I want to try it” and something along those lines for different kind of apps – like I said above, most of these people are geeks that like to tinker, refine their workflows, test new apps, buy new shiny gems from the App Store. There is nothing wrong about that, but I believe it says a lot about the kind of iPad users that replied to my polls.
Second, some users’ definition of “productive” is interesting. You would think checking news and reading tweets would be a time waster for most people, something you do when you’re done with work and other assignments, but, apparently, for some people staying on top of RSS falls under the concept of being productive. But the most important aspect of these polls are the top results. Whereas the “top productivity” list shows that people need to access documents and files (GoodReader and Dropbox), create and manage tasks (OmniFocus) and write down notes or long-form documents (Evernote, IA Writer, Pages), the “must-have iPad apps” top results show that, when it comes to choosing the favorite apps for the device, people tend to mention software for reading and consuming news. In that poll, in fact, the top results show apps like Twitter, Reeder, Instapaper, Flipboard, Zite, and Twitterrific. Productivity software like GoodReader and OmniFocus is still there, but with less votes as people choose apps to consume content and stay on top with news/Twitter. One could argue that I have more followers on Twitter than Google+, however the number of replies I received are not too distant from each other (and most users are the same across the two social networks), so I think it’s fairly accurate to say we can see a general trend here.
Fifteen months after the release of the original iPad, it’s interesting to notice how people actually use the device, and what apps they choose to get things done, jot down a quick note, organize media, or read. I think I’ll run another poll on Twitter in a few months; until then, we’ll be busy with the new stuff in Lion and iOS 5, which will likely trigger the release of new apps that we’ll try to fit in our workflows.
